Website Performance

Despite the tumultuous nature of 2020, we saw relatively consistent website performance. The following is a summary of benchmarking data, provided by Google Analytics and the marketing team’s project management platform of choice, Asana:

• Requests: The web team serviced 1,078 requests of all sizes during FY 20-21 compared to 1,091 in FY 19-20. • Traffic: 90% of website traffic was attributed to organic and direct traffic, slightly increasing from 86% previously.

Overall, traffic stayed consistent year over year. • Demographics: The Merage School website attracts a near-even split male-to-female demographic and skews younger and slightly more male. The largest age segment was 18-24 (33%) vs. the largest age segment from last period being 25-34 (35.6%). • Device Usage: 29% of session traffic uses a mobile or tablet device to access the website while 71% accessed via desktop. On desktop, users have a lower bounce rate and longer session duration. This could indicate issues with the mobile experience, or could represent the nature of differences between desktop and mobile browsing. • Geo: More than 68% of sessions come from the United

States, while China (9.09%) and India (5.40%) follow.

When looking at specific regions, we see that the majority of traffic comes from Los Angeles, then San

Francisco, Washington D.C. and San Diego. California as a whole represents 73% of U.S. sessions. • Traffic Sources and Engagement: Over 90% of sessions came from either organic search or direct traffic. Of these sessions, average bounce rate was on the low end (53.26%) and average session duration was longer (2:32), indicating a user-base engaged with the content.

• Content: Sessions began predominantly through the homepage (20%). The MSBA Index page accounts for 3.45% of entrances and the Undergraduate BA page comes in third at 2.75%. MFin’s Index page follows at 2.49%, followed by MSBA Admissions 2.16% and FTMBA Index 2.13%. The FTMBA Index page in particular, had among the lowest bounce rates at 30.17% and a longer session duration at nearly 4 minutes (3:52). Top content areas were Programs and

Research & Faculty (faculty information followed by

Centers of Excellence content), followed by the website’s

Homepage.

The following is a summary of completed projects for FY 20-21: • Website Exploration and Defining Strategy – Expert

Review: By providing critical user and expert data, the

Expert Review helped define a powerful web strategy and roadmap spanning the next several years. Currently, we’re working on utilizing user data and feedback to create a cohesive and clear web experience for all users.

Looking forward, we’re going to build on this established cohesive and accessible experience to further develop an intuitive and yet unique experience for our users.

• Homepage Redesign: One of the key takeaways from the Expert

Review was how critical the Homepage is as a landing page. Not only does the Homepage serve as a window to the Merage School, it’s the largest landing page on the site by far. With this data came the powerful opportunity to redefine the Homepage as a tool to retain users and prospective students. In the new design, we leverage captivating video footage, straightforward and engaging brand storytelling and userfocused design elements to invite users into the soul of the Merage

School and look at all the School has to offer.

• Redesigning the Web Request Intake Process: The web request system was not working for anybody. In particular, the event intake process was cumbersome and frustrating for all parties. We worked with our partner, Asana, to redesign and restructure the intake process, resulting in a convenient, streamlined user experience.

Recommendations for Next Year

The focus for FY 21-22 will be on projects that will continue to raise the profile of the School’s web presence as effectively and efficiently as possible. These are the projects we recommend and will be focusing on for the coming fiscal year: • Accessibility Focus: Updates and changes to our accessibility tracking software, Site Improve, have identified opportunities to dig into this subject matter and create positive changes on the website that will benefit all user bases. An expert audit and resulting recommendations list will be top-of-mind this year, in addition to our daily efforts to minimize any speed bumps in the overall user experience. • Centers of Excellence Template Redesign: From our content drill down and engagement data, we see the opportunity to re-engage

Centers of Excellence users. High bounce rates (64%) on these pages indicate users are interested in the subject matter, but likely find the user experience lacking. The goal for this project is to use the design elements and ideas established in the Academic Programs Template and Homepage Template to create a more consistent and engaging user experience. • Landing Page Template Design + Integration into CMS: A redesign of the landing page template presents an opportunity to integrate into our CMS (content management system). This would mean we have more control over the user experience and managing updates. The design will be structurally similar (basic elements will still be there), but with a layer of design that is updated and more cohesive with the current direction of our main website design. • Rethinking Web Reporting: The web team is dedicated to user and data-driven decision-making, and that means reporting on metrics that matter to our stakeholders. Currently, we are working on stakeholderspecific web reporting templates that will be updated on a quarterly basis.