PLA Board of Directors Midwinter Meeting 2018 2018.43a
Date: January 9, 2018 To: PLA Board From: Steven Hofmann, Manager, Web Communications Re: Technology
PLA Web Analytics In addition to the website analytics below, a comparison of PLA’s primary analytics with those of the other ALA divisions is attached. Although comparisons with other divisions do not necessarily have an “apples to apples” correlation, they may still offer some internal context. A comparison of analytics for the PLA site and Public Libraries Online with the same period last year is also attached.
PLA Website FY18 statistics September 1, 2017, the first day of the fiscal year, through December 31, 2017, reported by Google Analytics for the PLA website:
42,215 users
62,913 sessions, with 39.1% by new visitors and 60.9% by returning visitors and an average session duration of 2 minutes, 27 seconds
138,818 pageviews, for an average of 2.21 pages per session
88.53% of sessions were from the U.S., 3.38% from Canada, and the remaining from countries including India, China, Australia, the Philippines, the U.K., Nigeria, South Africa, and Malaysia
Top 10 pages by pageviews were:
o Homepage – 24,674 pageviews
o Conferences & Continuing Education – 6,972 pageviews
o Conferences & Preconferences – 5,336 pageviews
o Performance Measurement – 4,397 pageviews
o On-Demand Webinars – 3,277 pageviews
o Awards – 3,171 pageviews
o Join PLA – 2,954 pageviews
o About – 2,602 pageviews
o Violence Prevention in the Public Library (Free On-Demand Webinar) – 2,323 pageviews o Apply for PLA Awards – 2,213 pageviews
Primary source of traffic on the site was organic (i.e. free) search results (62.80% of sessions), followed by users entering URLs directly in their browsers or using bookmarks (22.69%), then links from other sites (11.66%), links from social media (2.64%), paid search results (.10%), other (.06%), and links from e-mail communications (.04%)
Top 10 sources of traffic by sessions were:
o Google (organic) – 36,363 sessions
o entering URLs or bookmarks – 14,278 sessions
o PLA Conference website – 2,224 sessions
o Bing (organic) – 1,979 sessions
o Yahoo (organic) – 1,068 sessions
o t.co referrals – 526 sessions
o Public Libraries Online – 515 sessions
o Facebook – 351 sessions
o Facebook Mobile – 346 sessions
o WebJunction – 200 sessions
PLA 2018 Conference Website FY18 statistics September 1, 2017, the first day of the fiscal year, through December 31, 2017, reported by Google Analytics for the PLA 2018 Conference website:
30,050 users
49,565 sessions, with 58.3% by new visitors and 41.7% by returning visitors and an average session duration of 3 minutes, 57 seconds
150,720 pageviews, for an average of 3.04 pages per session
91.92% of sessions were from the U.S., 3.87% from Canada, and the remaining from countries including Egypt, India, Australia, China, the U.K., the Philippines, Ukraine, and Brazil
Top 10 pages by pageview were:
o Homepage – 55,046
o Programs – 19,243 PLA Board of Directors Midwinter Meeting 2018 2018.43a
o Registration – 16,647
o Housing – 8.885
o Preconferences – 7,553
o Stand up for Health: Health and Wellness Services for Your Community (Preconference) – 1,802
o Tracks – 1,262
o Closing Session with Hasan Minhaj – 1,232
o Exhibit at PLA 2018 – 1, 209
o New Trends and Solutions for Making Libraries Welcoming Spaces for All (Preconference) – 1,013
Primary source of traffic on the site was organic (i.e. free) search results (46.03% of sessions), followed by users entering URLs directly in their browsers or using bookmarks (22.07%), then links from other sites (21.64%), other (7.06%), and links from social media (3.20%)
Top 10 sources of traffic by sessions were:
o Google (organic) – 20,850 sessions
o entering URLs or bookmarks – 10,940 sessions
o ala.org (this would include the PLA site) – 9,278 sessions
o GoogleAd/DigitalAd – 1,545 sessions
o Bing (organic) – 1,334 sessions
o Eblast/Email – 996 sessions
o Yahoo (organic) – 593 sessions
o Facebook Mobile – 556 sessions
o t.co referrals – 491 sessions
o PressRelease/PR – 406 sessions
Public Libraries Online Website FY18 statistics September 1, 2017, the first day of the fiscal year, through December 31, 2017, reported by Google Analytics for the Public Libraries Online website: 109,125 users
137,814 sessions, with 76.9% by new visitors and 23.1% by returning visitors and an average session duration of 1 minute, 7 seconds
194,470 pageviews, for an average of 1.41 pages per session
67.65% of sessions were from the U.S., 6.06% from Canada, and the remaining from countries including Australia, the U.K., India, the Philippines, Nigeria, New Zealand, Malaysia, and South Africa
Top 10 pages by pageviews were:
o Community Centered: 23 Reasons Why Your Library Is the Most Important Place in Town (Sep/Oct 2011; posted Apr 2013) – 15,855 pageviews
o Homepage – 14,483 pageviews
o A Day in the Life of a Prison Librarian (Oct 2017) – 5,890 pageviews
o Ten Things a Children’s Librarian Needs to Know (posted Jan 2015) – 3,079 pageviews
o Posts tagged “Adult Programming” – 3,025 pageviews
o Ten Essential Qualities for Success: A New Cataloging Librarian’s Guide from a Supervisor’s Perspective (May/Jun 2013; posted Jun 2013) – 2,783 pageviews
o Customers or Patrons? How You Look at Your Library’s Users Affects Customer Service (Jan/Feb 2015; posted Mar 2015) – 2,736 pageviews
o Hey! The Library Is Kind of Awesome! Current Trends in US Public Library Services for Teens (Nov 2016) – 1,932 pageviews
o The Future Looks Bright for Librarianship (Dec 2017) – 1,798 pageviews
o Virtual Reality in the Library: Creating a New Experience (posted Feb 2016) – 1,723 pageviews
Primary source of visits to the site was organic (i.e. free) search engine results (65.09%), followed by users entering URLs directly in their browsers or using bookmarks (21.39%), then links from social media (7.75%), links from other sites (5.74%), links from e-mail communications (.03%), and other (.00%)
Top 10 sources of traffic by sessions were:
o Google (organic) – 84,675 sessions PLA Board of Directors Midwinter Meeting 2018 2018.43a o entering URLs or bookmarks – 29,472 sessions o Facebook Mobile – 4,740 sessions o Bing (organic) – 3,242 sessions o Facebook – 3,041 sessions o ala.org (this would include the PLA site) – 2,540 sessions o t.co referrals – 1,767 sessions o Yahoo (organic) – 1,693 sessions o Google Search app for Android – 1,259 sessions o DuckDuckGo (organic) – 458 sessions