Despite not specializing in the information technology field, Kyle believes he will be able to problem-solve when it comes to content and ideas he doesn’t fully understand.
Look at that handsome fella!
“For me, every job is all about problem-solving, even if you know exactly what you’re doing. The very way I came into this position was by thinking of solutions to issues I was facing. I wanted to find an internship here in Bloomington, but I was growing more and more tired of the traditional application process.”
“You either hear nothing back or you get your hopes up going through additional interviews only for the job to pick the other candidate. I thought to myself about solutions and one day I just sat down and started researching local businesses here in Bloomington, ironically using BloomingtonOnline.com that I now help manage, and came across David Martin Design.
Looking at my relevant skills when it comes to website design, I have to say that I don’t have a lot coming into this. I am a technology savvy person though so I have a basis of knowledge in what we work with, because of this relationship or lack thereof with the basics of some key aspects of David’s job, I often find myself having to put my problem-solving skills to work again and again as I find myself in new and often challenging positions. I am happy to say that in the short time I have had the chance to work with David so far I have learned so much with regards to not only technology or Google but to aspects like professional project management.”
For the past three years, Kyle has been attending IU Bloomington as a Financial Management major, and he is currently in the process of applying to law schools for next fall. We look forward to seeing great things from him!
Picture this: You build an amazing site for your business and set it live. A few weeks pass by, and you eagerly check to see how many people visited your site. Despite receiving some decent traffic, you want to take immediate steps to improve these numbers but…you have no idea how to do it.
Many site owners find themselves in the exact same position. Even with ample data about their site performance, they’re still not sure how to iron out the kinks to offer users a seamless experience. Microsft Clarity just might be the tool to help solve this problem.
Here, we’ll take a deep look into what Clarity offers and how your website can benefit from it.
What is Microsoft Clarity?
Microsoft Clarity is a specialized analytics tool designed to help site owners gain a better understanding of how visitors interact with their site. With informative features such as heatmaps and session replays, Clarity can offer a unique view of your site’s performance that other popular tools such as Google Analytics simply don’t offer.
By tracking user behavior on your site, Clarity collects basic information regarding engagement, interactions, and sessions. This data is conveniently summarized in the dashboard, giving you quick and up-to-date statistics about your site. Users are broken down into various categories such as country and device type for more detailed insights.
What does Microsoft Clarity offer?
It’s no secret that some site analytics tools can take some getting used to. Fortunately, the simple layout of Microsoft Clarity and its relatively straightforward function make for a more user-friendly experience.
To get a better idea of what this newer tool offers, let’s dissect Clarity’s primary features.
Dashboard and Insights
The Microsoft Clarity dashboard acts as a central hub where all of your site’s data is collected and organized. Here, you can find standard metrics that most analytics tools provide including total sessions, unique users, pages per session, and engagement.
A quick glance at the Clarity dashboard will reveal some intriguing markers that you might not be familiar with. Dead clicks, rage clicks, and excessive scrolling are special insights designed to help site owners pinpoint problem areas that might be preventing visitors from having an optimal user experience.
If you’ve ever had a webpage freeze or refuse to load quicker than dial-up, you understand why “rage clicks” and “excessive scrolls” are the perfect indicators of user frustration. Identifying and fixing these problem areas might just be the key to boosting your site’s engagement and conversions.
Session Recording
While distinctive features such as rage clicks do a great job of setting Microsoft Clarity apart from well-established competitors, we’ve just taken a peek into this tool’s diverse bag of tricks. One of the most attractive features of Clarity is its comprehensive session recording application which records user behavior for each and every session. Everything from clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements are recorded and stored.
You can review these clips at any time to get a clear picture of your average user’s behavior. This data is available for each page. For an even deeper understanding, Clarity organizes these recordings by specific browsers to help determine browser-specific issues. With advanced AI, you can even tell whether a particular session is part of a larger pattern or an outlier. This is useful for ruling out anomalies and addressing routine problems.
Heatmaps
While more general analytics can offer a good idea of how users bounce between your site’s pages, Microsoft Clarity takes it a step further by allowing site owners to see how visitors behave on individual pages. With the heatmaps function, you have a clear and informative view of where users tend to click.
This information is further divided by devices such as mobile, tablet, and desktop so you can see how behavior varies between each category. You can use this thorough tool to see how your visitors move around your site, where they’re getting hung up, and what can be done to improve their sessions.
How much does Microsoft Clarity cost?
You’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft Clarity is currently offered as a free service. There’s also no cap on traffic. This means that whether you need to track a newly built site or you want to switch analytics tools on a site that’s already successful, you’ll be paying the exact same amount…nothing!
Is it a replacement for Google Analytics?
While Microsoft Clarity is advertised as an analytics tool, it serves a very specific function. It can give you some insight that Google Analytics can’t, but that doesn’t mean you should say goodbye to your current applications. It works better as an excellent supplement to more comprehensive tools than it does as your primary resource.
Interested in making a site for your next project? Reach out to David Martin Design to learn more about the process. David has decades of experience building sites for business owners and can make a site based on your unique needs.
It’s been a pleasure working with Steve and Mary over at Ava’s Waste Removal in Ellettsville (pretty close to Bloomington) since the beginning of February 2019.
Mary, Ava, & Steve holding hands
We’ve built each page by handcrafting each web page title, each web page description, the canonical URLs, the open graph meta tags for social sharing, and important information for a high performing business website.
Steve and Mary agreed that in addition to a custom website, we needed to make sure that other important accounts were also setup. In addition to building a responsive website for Ava’s, David did some additional account setup including:
connected Google Analytics to keep track of website visitors and statistics
setup Google Search Console to see keyword queries that people are searching for
setup Google Photos for sharing photos to put on the website and improving them
built helpful content for customers that also accurately described Ava’s Waste Removal and their services (weekly trash pickup, dumpster rentals, roll off containers).
After developing some great content, we turned that into structured semantic HTML with Schema data for good results and high ranking on the search engine ranking pages. I tested the website for valid HTML and pagespeed and was very happy with the results. There was a tradeoff when we added the Facebook Messenger widget into the website. It caused two errors and also made the pagespeed score go from 99 out of 100 to 41 out of 100. The pagespeed decrease is worth it in my opinion so that customers can message them on Facebook Messenger.
Steve & Mary from Ava’s wrote a great review about our work together and it’s so nice to have that happen.
“David did a great job! He’s responsive, organized, and generally cares about helping us grow our business. From beginning to end David was attentive to our needs and delivered a great website. Highly recommend his services!”
Google Review from Steve @ Ava’s Waste Removal
I look forward to seeing their progress as they build a great small business. It’s been great working with them and if you need trash service in Bloomington, Ellettsville, or the surrounding area, definitely see if you are in their service area.
