The Alexander field guide
Web analytics, made useful.
50 practical guides to understand your visitors, find journey friction and make better decisions with your website data.
Website engagement
Understand bounce rate, landing pages and the signals that show whether a visit was useful.
The practical guide to website engagement
A practical framework for interpreting engagement and choosing a useful next step.
Read guide →How to reduce bounce rate without chasing the wrong number
Diagnose high bounce rates by intent, landing page and device before changing the page.
Read guide →Engagement rate explained: what it can and cannot tell you
Learn what engagement rate measures and how to interpret it alongside outcomes.
Read guide →Pages per session: when more pageviews are a good sign
Interpret pages per session without rewarding confusing navigation or extra clicks.
Read guide →How to analyse exit pages and find journey problems
Separate natural endings from exits that reveal friction in an important journey.
Read guide →Landing page engagement: a step-by-step analysis
Evaluate whether a landing page matches its promise and helps visitors act.
Read guide →Time on page: how to read it without guessing
Understand why time metrics can mislead and how to use them responsibly.
Read guide →How to analyse mobile engagement on your website
Find mobile-specific friction in landing pages, navigation, forms and conversion paths.
Read guide →Measure content engagement beyond pageviews
Build a useful measurement plan for articles, guides and resource pages.
Read guide →Segment website engagement to uncover hidden patterns
Use a few purposeful audience segments instead of relying on one blended average.
Read guide →
Funnels and conversion paths
Build useful funnels, locate drop-off and improve forms, signups and checkout journeys.
Website funnels: the complete practical guide
Plan a funnel, define steps and use conversion and drop-off rates to improve a journey.
Read guide →How to find and fix funnel drop-off
Prioritise funnel leaks by visitor intent, step friction and likely business impact.
Read guide →How to analyse a signup funnel
Measure the path from signup intent to a verified, useful first session.
Read guide →Ecommerce checkout funnel analysis
Spot avoidable friction from cart through order confirmation and payment.
Read guide →Improve form conversion with analytics
Diagnose form abandonment through field friction, errors and completion quality.
Read guide →Micro-conversions: measure progress before the sale
Choose meaningful early actions that help diagnose long or complex buying journeys.
Read guide →How much data do you need to trust a funnel?
Avoid overreacting to noisy funnel rates, small segments and short date ranges.
Read guide →Design a multi-step funnel that reflects real user journeys
Keep funnel steps actionable, ordered and grounded in events your site records.
Read guide →Funnel vs customer journey: which view should you use?
Understand how funnel reports and journey maps answer different questions.
Read guide →Use analytics to run better A/B tests
Prepare a measurable hypothesis, choose a primary outcome and avoid common experiment traps.
Read guide →
Traffic sources and attribution
Understand acquisition channels, UTMs, attribution limits and the quality of the visitors you earn.
The guide to measuring website traffic quality
Move beyond traffic volume to understand which visits progress toward valuable outcomes.
Read guide →UTM parameters: a practical campaign tracking guide
Create consistent UTM naming so campaigns appear clearly in acquisition reports.
Read guide →Website attribution models explained
Understand what common attribution approaches credit and where each can mislead.
Read guide →How to analyse organic search traffic
Connect organic visits, landing pages and conversions to the intent behind search queries.
Read guide →Analyse referral traffic and find your best partnerships
Separate meaningful partner referrals from noise and evaluate their downstream value.
Read guide →Measure paid campaign performance beyond clicks
Connect paid spend and campaign visits to qualified outcomes and sustainable returns.
Read guide →How to measure traffic from AI assistants
Identify visible AI referrals carefully and evaluate whether those visits match your goals.
Read guide →What direct traffic means (and what it does not)
Understand unattributed visits and investigate why a source may be missing.
Read guide →Build a campaign report people can act on
Summarise campaign audience, landing-page fit, outcomes and next decisions.
Read guide →Measure email traffic and newsletter performance
Connect email visits to campaign goals while accounting for privacy features and link tagging.
Read guide →
Analytics measurement and metrics
Set up measurement you can trust, choose conversions and understand privacy-aware analytics.
Web analytics setup: a measurement plan that lasts
Plan analytics around business questions, essential events and quality checks.
Read guide →How to measure website conversions correctly
Define conversion events that represent meaningful outcomes and keep reporting consistent.
Read guide →Privacy-friendly analytics: measure with restraint
Design useful analytics that minimises personal data and respects visitor privacy.
Read guide →Cookieless analytics: what you can still measure
Understand the strengths and limits of analytics that does not rely on visitor cookies.
Read guide →How to build a web analytics dashboard people use
Organise a compact dashboard around decisions, owners and meaningful comparisons.
Read guide →How to measure website revenue and ecommerce performance
Track purchases and revenue with consistent order values, sources and reconciliation.
Read guide →Compare analytics date ranges without misleading yourself
Choose fair time periods and account for weekday patterns, seasonality and tracking changes.
Read guide →10 web analytics reporting mistakes to avoid
Catch common errors in definitions, attribution, averages and before-and-after comparisons.
Read guide →Analytics events: choose and name the right ones
Create a small event taxonomy that stays understandable as your site and product grow.
Read guide →How to identify bot traffic in website analytics
Recognise suspicious traffic patterns and keep automated visits from distorting decisions.
Read guide →
Conversion and website optimisation
Use analytics to improve landing pages, calls to action, mobile journeys and customer retention.
Conversion rate optimisation: a practical guide
Build a repeatable optimisation process from visitor evidence to measured improvements.
Read guide →Where to place calls to action on a website
Make calls to action clear and well-timed without turning every page into a sales pitch.
Read guide →A data-led checklist for landing page conversion
Review message match, clarity, proof, friction and next steps on a landing page.
Read guide →How website speed affects engagement and conversion
Use performance evidence to locate slow pages and evaluate the impact of improvements.
Read guide →Improve mobile conversion with a task-first review
Audit mobile navigation, forms, trust cues and completion paths using visitor data.
Read guide →Use website analytics to improve navigation
Find confusing menus and broken paths without adding navigation based on guesswork.
Read guide →Understand returning visitors and encourage useful return visits
Interpret repeat traffic carefully and create reasons for customers to come back.
Read guide →Turn web analytics insights into actions your team can track
Create a clear path from observation to hypothesis, owner, change and follow-up.
Read guide →Website retention metrics: choose measures that fit your product
Measure repeat use or return visits with a definition that matches your customer lifecycle.
Read guide →Reduce checkout abandonment with a focused analytics review
Find where shoppers abandon checkout and separate avoidable friction from normal purchase decisions.
Read guide →