Research top tasks: 60% of visitors come to your website for the same 4 top tasks

What will you read in this article?

• Presentation: how to identify top tasks + a few cases
• Why are top tasks so important?
• How do you identify top tasks? 
• Some real-life numbers

Presentation: how to identify top tasks + a few cases

In this presentation I clarify which method you should use to identify top tasks. I also provide some practical examples.

These examples clarify that on many websites, more than 60% of visitors come for only 4 top tasks.

Identifying top tasks will help you to optimize the information architecture of your website. And it’s incredibly important to everyone who takes the user-friendliness of their website seriously. In my workshop usability and conversion optimization I will teach you all about it.

Why are top tasks so important?

1. Let visitors reach their goal

Those who are on the right track on the first click, reach their goal twice as often.

I hope that this is the starting point for everyone involved in websites: allowing visitors to reach their goal as quickly as possible.

Research shows that visitors who get it wrong on the first click, don’t reach their goal twice as often as visitors who are on the right track immediately. Read the study here.

2. Mobile first

Smartphone screens fit slightly less information than a 24″ desktop screen. And the number of people that visits your website on their smartphone, is less marginal than many people think.

For those visitors, you’ll have to make choices. And you should base those choices on top tasks.

When you’ve put in that effort, why would you make life harder for people with big screens by stuffing their screen with less relevant content?

3. Less choices = easier to choose

When people have less choices, it’s easier to choose than when there’s a large number of options.

And the odds of them making the wrong choice are smaller too.

How do you identify top tasks?

Dive into Google Analytics?

Google Analytics zegt je wat mensen hebben gedaan. Niet wat ze wilden doen.

No. Or at least, not just through Google Analytics.

Did your visitors really want to view that page? Maybe they got there by accident.

And Google Analytics cannot tell you anything about the things that people are visiting your website for, but which isn’t on there at all.

Even aan het callcenter vragen wat de meest gestelde vragen zijn? Ask the call center what the most frequently asked questions are?

No. At least, don’t only put your faith in the call center.

The call center knows why people call.

But there’s a differnce between why people call or visit, and why they visit your website.

Just ask your visitors?

Yes.

When you do it right, a survey is an excellent method.

A lot of surveys put too many words in their visitors’ mouths, or they’re set up in a way that generates a low response rate.

We developed a specific top task survey with a high response rate and neutrally phrased questions.

Some real-life numbers

These examples are based on recent studies we’ve done. Because our clients don’t like to see their numbers strewn about everywhere, I will present these numbers anonymously.

I can tell you that these examples concern big websites with tens of thousands of visitors per month. Most websites comprise over 500 pages.

1. Government website

• 27% of visitors lands on the website for things that aren’t on the website. And that shouldn’t be on there.
  This number cannot be retrieved from Google Analytics, unless you’re employing a serious amount of guesswork.
• 61% of people that should be on the website, is there for the same 4 tasks.
• The 8th most common task is only mentioned in 2% of answers.

2. Hulporganisatie Aid organisation

• 82% of visitors is there for the same 2 tasks.
• Task #9 accounts for 0.75% of answers.

3. City and municipal websites

• We’ve tested this on more than 20 websites in the past few months. Big and small municipalities and cities. Old-fashioned, seriously limited websites and completely built-out, new websites. And everywhere we find the same top tasks.
• In the top five are usually very practical things that regard openings hours, the library, the swimming pool, the container park or things to do in the area.

4. Supportwebsite in the financial sector

• 68% of users comes for the same 4 top tasks.
• In the top 7 are two tasks that cannot be accomplished on the current website. You will never find this out from Google Analytics.

 All well and good, but I have a hundred things to say

What you want to say is not important. It’s about wat the visitor wants to know.

First and foremost, that is your problem. What you want, is unimportant. Your visitors come first.

Stop chucking content on your website “because you can”. Think from the visitor’s perspective and help them along.

Top tasks help you to write precisely those words that will help your visitor. So that they’ll come back. Become your customer. Subscribe to your newsletter.

En als je ons niet gelooft, bekijk dan deze presentatie van Tjörven Stuer over waarom het misliep met de website van de overheid waarvoor hij werkt. Een verhaal dat geldt voor zowat alle overheden. Wij hielpen Tjörven met het schrappen van 75% van zijn pagina’s.

En als ik eerlijk ben: ook voor heel veel bedrijven.

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