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Integrated Website Measurement and Demographic Profiling Project 2004/2005 - Watching Brief No.2, February 2005

• Overview of major findings to date
• Vital Statistics
• Case Study - Department of Primary Industries
• Watching Brief publication timeline

This Watching Brief is the second in a series of four briefs published to highlight the major findings from the second phase of the integrated website measurement and demographic profiling project across Victorian Government websites.

Overview of major findings to date

On average, there were approximately 1,439,000 unique browsers on Victorian Government websites recorded in each month (Period 01/10/04 - 31/01/05)

In the first Watching Brief, published in December 2004, an overrepresentation from people in Government related occupations, overrepresentation from metropolitan Melbourne, and heavy government website usage from the 26 - 45 year old demographic were identified as key issues which needed to be addressed in order to ensure success in creating an e-citizenship environment that fully serves the needs of the Victorian population.

The focus for this report is to look at the state of play from October '04 - January '05 and review changes from the previous period reported on in Watching Brief #1. With many of the previous trends outlined within Watching Brief #1 continuing in the current period, we will provide insight into ways to address these trends.

Overrepresentation from people in Government related occupations

Data from the period October '04 - January '05 still suggests that a significant number of survey respondents are in Government related occupations

38.41% of survey respondents over the period came from Health/Community services, Government/Defence Services and Education services. This is consistent with the previous period.

Possible Reasons

• General population not aware of the range of Government services available to them
• Online offerings not user-centric - they sill do not represent the needs of Victorians online.

Possible solutions

• A strategic marketing approach to raising the awareness of Government websites should be considered.
• Develop an online offering which is tailored to your audience - collating and analysing website statistics is the first step to understanding how sites currently perform. It is the starting point for developing a proactive approach to providing a user-centric online offering.

An older demographic

• There were only diminutive changes in age demographics seen over the October '04 - January '05 period
• Results still show a skew towards the 26-35 year age group, with the largest number of surveys (27.79%) of surveys being completed by this demographic
• Usage of government sites online by the youngest demographic - 18 years and under - increased at a rate of 7.25% over the period.

Possible Reasons

• Technology laggards - more prevalent in the older age demographic (over 65) - cause fewer government services targeted at this demographic to be taken online
• Target audiences for the majority of popular government websites fall within the 26-45 demographic.

Possible Solution

• Optimise online offering and consider executing awareness campaigns focussing on your website's target audience.

NB - Overhauls in the online offering and targeted awareness campaigns at the Under 18 category (e.g. 'Youth Central' site) help to account for the increase in popularity of this category recorded in the latest period.

Increasing government website usage from users outside Victoria

• Survey results showed region of internet access results were consistent with the previous period
• An overrepresentation of users from metropolitan Melbourne remains an issue - during this period, 68.03% of unique browsers came from this region.

Possible Reasons

• Lack of infrastructure, socio-economic factors and perceived relevancy and necessity are all issues which impact the uptake and usage of the Internet in rural regions in Victoria,
• There is a very large proportion of the Victorian population living in metropolitan Melbourne compared with rural Victoria.

Possible Solution

• Awareness campaigns in rural Victoria - with a focus on benefits of the Internet preceding a campaign outlining the range of relevant Government services available online for rural Victorians.

Increasing Broadband Usage

• Broadband penetration increased at a rate of 5.04% from the previous period
• We would expect this to grow at a similar rate throughout 2005.

Possible Reasons

• The 'Broadband Boom' - general public is more aware of the benefits of broadband
• Broadband is cheaper and more readily accessible.

Implications

• Users will begin to demand an increase in the quality of your communication with them, i.e. using rich media
• Broadband connections facilitate greater interactivity for the user.

Vital Statistics

The following table presents a high-level overview of the major statistics tracked by Nielsen//NetRatings over the two periods covered within Watching Brief 1 and Watching Brief 2 ( 01/06/04 – 30/09/04 and 01/10/04 - 31/01/05)

 

General Website Usage

	June 2004 - Sept 2004	Oct 2004 - Jan 2005
Unique Browsers	4,830,735	5,755,763
Average Session Duration	3.5 minutes	3.4 minutes
Frequency of Visits (Ave.)	1.6 per month	1.7 per month
Websites Monitored (top level domains	115	140
Surveys Completed	36,409	26,218
Place of website use	57.07% accessed the internet in the workplace 35.69% access it at home	58.16% accessed the internet in the workplace 35.58% accessed it at home

 

Demographics

	June 2004 - Sept 2004	Oct 2004 - Jan 2005
Gender	58.65% female 41.34% male	58.51% female 41.48% male
Location	67.99% Metropolitan Melbourne	68.03% Metropolitan Melbourne
Age	Majority (68%) aged between 18 and 45 years	Majoring ((67%) aged between 18 and 45 years
Employment Status	58.77% in full-time employment 13.55% in part-time/casual employment	60.05% in full-time employment 13.60% in part-time/casual employment
Occupation	Highest - Health/Community Services Industry (15.11%)	Highest - Health/Community Services Industry ((15.39%)
Type of Internet Connection	45.4% of respondents used a broadband connection	47.69% of respondents used a broadband connection
Preferred Method of Interaction with Government	50.69% preferred the internet 20.87% preferred to use the telephone	51.76% preferred the internet 21.49% prefered to use the telephone

Case Study: Department of Primary Industries

Delivering critical, real-time information online is a highly valued service provided by DPI (Department of Primary Industries).

We recently took the opportunity to sit down with Simon Vandeligt, Intranet Manager and website technician for the Department of Primary Industries, and discuss how Nielsen//NetRatings website tracking helps DPI ensure this information is delivered effectively to users in all corners of Victoria.

Key Insights

• Understand your stats - an 'educated view' on what they mean provides more valuable insight than a 'stab in the dark'.
• Analysis of stats is the first step in developing a proactive approach to improving your site.
• If you have the tracking, use it!

Tell us a little bit about the Department of Primary Industries and its online presence?

"The Department of Primary Industries' (DPI) purpose is to promote the sustainable development of primary industries for the benefit of all Victoria ." (About Us, Department of Primary Industries website).

"The Department's website contains relevant and key information about primary industries throughout Victoria for use by business, members of the public and other government departments."

How long has DPI been using Nielsen//NetRatings statistics to assess the effectiveness of your website?

"Being one of the 'big 10' government departments, we were involved in the initial rollout of the Nielsen//NetRatings product in Government. This occurred in November, 2003."

What sort of reports do you build from the information tracked?

 "We have Nielsen//NetRatings code embedded on every page within ourexternal site, so with the help of the team at Nielsen we have the ability to set up reports at will. Karl Snow and the team at Nielsen are extremely responsive to any requests that we make.

We have established a set of regular reports on the overall site and its main sub-sections (or themes) but because the information we provide regularly changes, we also regularly set up new reports on an ‘as required’ basis.

An example of this was evident recently when we needed to run reports on usage across our 'plague locusts' information pages. Given that this has only recently become a major issue, the extent of the problem means that it is a popular area of our site and one which is of great importance to primary industry businesses in affected areas. We therefore required reports on these pages to be run to ensure that we were disseminating information effectively across these pages."

How are the statistics presented back to others within DPI?

"We currently do not have a 'set' framework in place for statistic gathering and presentation. This is in large part due to the different, and changing, needs of each of the different DPI teams requiring stats. Rather, we have a dynamic framework which caters for the delivery of stats depending on the needs of the team requesting them."

How is analysis of the statistics undertaken?

"When I first started at DPI, I put a lot of thought and time into developing a guiding document for the analysis of Nielsen//NetRatings statistics. I wanted to ensure our analysis delivered an educated view, not a 'rough stab in the dark' or 'guess' at what the stats might mean. Even to this day, myself and other members of the team will use this document for guidance when we are analysing what the stats actually mean."

Do you think an analysis of these stats encourages a 'user-centric' focus for the site?

"Definitely. The re-development of our entire external site is underway soon and one of our first ports of call will be a heavy analysis of the site usage statistics. This will help us paint a picture of the current site - who is using it, what areas of the site are well used, what areas are ignored by our users etc. All of this information will feed directly into the re-development of the new site."

What is the value that these statistics provide?

 "At the end of the day, it provides us with a solid understanding of our site - how it is performing and how we can be proactive in improving the site"

What tips/insights do you have for other Government departments in using Nielsen//NetRatings?

 "If you have it, use it!

There is no better way to understanding how your site is being used than looking at and understanding your stats."

For more information on the DPI website please contact:

Simon Vandeligt
Intranet Manager
Department of Primary Industries
Email: simon.vandeligt@dpi.vic.gov.au

---

For more information on the Integrated Website Measurement and Demographic Profiling Project, please contact:

Cheryl Hardy
Project Manager - Victoria Online
Chief Technology Office, Multimedia Victoria
Email: cheryl.hardy@mmv.vic.gov.au

The Watching Brief is also available for printing in pdf format. (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader) (180kb)

 

Publication timeline for watching briefs

Each ‘Watching Brief’ will cover a specific period of time. These time periods, and the publication date for the associated ‘Watching Briefs’ are as follows.

• Watching Brief #1: Period Covered, June 04 – Sep 04, Published December 2004
• Watching Brief #2: Period Covered, Oct 04 – Jan 05, Published February 2005
• Watching Brief #3: Period Covered, Feb 05 – Mar 05, To be Published April 2005
• Watching Brief #4: Period Covered, Apr 05 – May 05, To be Published June 2005

 

Last updated: 28 February 2006

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