The City of Philadelphia was in pursuit of data and analytics pertaining to site activity on all websites in the City of Philadelphia ecosystem. To gain perspective of the sites’ audiences and visitor behavior, we conducted a data audit and analysis followed by the set up of a comprehensive dashboard for future reporting.
City of Philadelphia
Explore Philly
Task
Audit, Analyze, and Report
This project had three deliverables. We first needed to conduct an analytics audit and setup followed by a performance analysis using Google Analytics data. The performance analysis was intended to give the City of Philadelphia team a better understanding of who is using their site and for what purpose. The last piece of the project was the creation of a dynamic Google Data Studio dashboard for reporting.
Objective
Address Business Needs Using Analytics
The City of Philadelphia wanted to better understand its audience and to update its analytics setup to adequately meet the needs of the business. Additionally, our client looked to us to create a dynamic reporting dashboard that could be used across departments by both senior and junior team members. Prior to working with Happy Cog, they had multiple disparate reports for various departments and some errors in how the analytics were being tracked.
Execution
Identify Flaws and Build for the Business
The first step was to conduct an audit of the site’s existing Google Analytics setup to identify key errors, updates, and additions to the account. We met with stakeholders to identify what their current analytics setup and business reports were lacking in terms of meeting business objectives. This approach informed our process and strategy as we were able to consider the client’s key business goals for the coming weeks/months/year. Learning about their specific needs enabled us to create a custom setup that supported their goals over the coming period.
For the analytics report, we analyzed the site’s traffic, audience, and user journeys. This helped us to better understand the demographics of the site’s visitors, as well as how they are experiencing the site and clicking through content.
Considering that each department would be using the reporting platform for various purposes, we created a consolidated dashboard in Google Data Studio that could be used company-wide as well as for department-specific reporting.
Results
A Versatile Dashboard and Reliable Data
Overall, we cleaned up the existing Google Analytics setup for much easier analysis and reporting of activity on City of Philadelphia sites. By rolling multiple reports into one dynamic Google Data Studio dashboard, all users at the organization can now access data that is relevant to their particular role or team. Their teams now have a better understanding of the sites’ visitor behaviors, and this led them to determine how to best organize and present content on the phila.gov home page and in the navigation. They can now analyze which categories within the services tab have the most engagement and where teams should be directing their efforts regarding site content.