As a web writer and content strategist, I make a lot of assumptions about user behavior based on analytics, heat mapping, and usability testing. I also spend a lot of time reading what the experts are saying and think I have a pretty good handle on best practices because of it.
Time and again, we all claim that things like pageviews, time on page, bounce rates, and clickthroughs are the benchmarks by which we must measure content. We like to believe that we can create the perfect user experience and control how a visitor accesses and navigates our site.
But then I think about how I use the web. I dare you to follow me around and try to glean any useful information from my behavior. You’d find the wanderings of a madman.
I Google everything. Even if it’s an easy url that I have memorized. ESPN, for example. It’s espn.com. But more often than not I Google ESPN. Or if I want to know something specific, like how badly my beloved Minnesota Timberwolves lost last night, I won’t use ESPN’s navigation. Doesn’t matter how rockstar it is. I’ll Google Minnesota Timberwolves score. And then I’ll probably leave that tab open all day just because I forget. Sometimes I’ll get to the end of a day and realize I have an absurd number of tabs open. So all those pages are just crushing the time on page metric.
My point is this—users are weird and you’re never going to understand their behavior, let alone control it. The best you can do is try to make it clear and easy for them to find what they’re looking for, however they might look for it.