Links on a web page started off so easy in the beginning days of the interwebs. A simple HREF with maybe a TITLE or a CLASS and you were good to go. Fast forward to today, where everyone wants to track every little thing on a web page and across web pages and domains, including but not limited to, clicks on the perceived “links” of every web page – that are tied to “this” campaign, “this” project or “this” sprint…
With so many new and different web technologies that allow us all sorts of powerful and transparent functionality, you’d think obtaining answers to business questions would be simple when tracking a website with the use of analytics. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Links” used to mean, that when looking at a web page, you would see a piece of underlined text that took you to another page (or to a different section within the same page) of the same website, or another website altogether, or maybe an image was the link with the same functionality. But today, we can do things that make web pages interactive and that offer real-time engagement with the use of applications and processes all through the browser or device of choice.
Perception
Here is where things get very interesting. When working with a large group of individuals and teams, in silos and dispersed – that all make up this one gigantic entity that is the business – trying to get everyone on the same page and receiving sign-off before the next release is a difficult phenomenon.
Today we can write functionality that contains all the use cases of the “touch” or “click” action in a browser on a web page, or in an application on a phone or kiosk. But now the word “link” has become an umbrella for many different components and features. It becomes very crazy, very quickly. (Say that 5 times in a row really fast! I cannot do it…)
Defining analytics requests to answer these business questions, needs the understanding of the people and their perceptions.
When using the term “link” with developers, vs analysts, vs the business – each have their own perception of what a “link” is or should be when looking at a web page or application, regardless of its purpose or functionality.
Links
A “link” on a web page or within an application identified by the business can be a very wide range of elements and components. The business has defined their own logic and funnels to collect the answers to their questions, but the devil is in the details.
From the perception of the business, everything is a “link.” The true HREF’s of course, but also anything that acts like a link, including but not limited to, BUTTONs, DIVs, SPANs – and other elements that are not “links” in the world of the developer.
The HTML Attribute offers a good solution to assist in untangling this ball of yarn, but it is not the be-all end-all solution, nor is using a Data Layer by itself (although you can use both individually), but using them both together and with the ability to update metadata in real-time within the application, will answer all sorts of questions and more you never thought of.
The SPA (Single Page Application) is a great example as how best to capture our data in one thousand different ways. The answer is never clear-cut. Nor is any one solution developed for any given environment. The parts are always dynamic and volatile. They stop for nothing.
It is also very interesting to learn what everyone thinks is a “link,” and how in tune they are with the application or web feature they are defining analytics for in a business context.
And Closing Thoughts
Now that we have what we hope will answer the never-ending ask of, “how many times was that link clicked”, we can now start a conversation or develop a framework based on analytics and the separation of or insertion of an analytics architecture that will allow analytics to be free of the never-ending changes of a website when relying on the DOM.
Let me ask you this, is there a one size fits all solution? Or is it that the solution must be developed per feature of requests? What would be your approach?
