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Stickiness is the average time a user spends on a site and the frequency of his or her visits to a Web site. Consider these recommendations for developing a sticky site: 1. keep it simple, 2. deliver value with every click, 3. keep content fresh and compelling, 4. tailor the user experience, 5. engage your users right from the start, 6. if you are not currently engaging end users to provide feedback during your Web site planning and design phase, you should. 7. customers who have a positive experience at your site are more likely to visit again and will likely tell others, 8. stickiness for online commerce means making the user's shopping experience better than the brick-and-mortar equivalent, 9. the more useless content they have to slog through, the more likely they'll bail and choose another site with which to do business, 10. provide tools that users can take advantage of while browsing your site.

As our understanding of Web site users evolves, so too do our strategies for increasing Web site usage and influencing user behavior. It wasn't so long ago that Web site "hits" and "page views" were our focus for measuring performance. Then we learned that these metrics said little about the site's actual usage and, in some cases, were misleading. Our focus then turned to "visitors" and "unique visits" and, while these metrics provided value to understand user volume, they still were a far cry from truly understanding a site's performance and specifically evaluating how the site was being used.

Today, "stickiness" is a critical component in understanding site performance. Stickiness is the average time a user spends on a site and the frequency of his or her visits to the site. Although quantifying stickiness is not an exact science allowing us to measure Web site success, it does provide a valuable metric for a site's performance when used in parallel with other data analytics.

WHY STICKINESS MATTERS

Every Web site visit is an opportunity to engage the user and influence his or her behavior. Whether your site's purpose is to sell Moon Pies, auction McDonald's Happy Meals memorabilia, help students find information for a class paper, or organize a group fighting against the exploitation of Labrador retriever puppies in catalogs like Pottery Barn, L.L. Bean, and Eddie Bauer, all sites are after the same thing: loyal users who visit often, interact heavily, and visit long.

In some instances, the organization's Web site is the first and/or only contact a potential consumer may have with the company. Imagine the potential for an organization whose Web site receives several million visits per year. While the total number of visits is certainly important, measuring visits alone is not enough to truly understand usage-that's where stickiness comes in. The idea of stickiness is based on the premise that the longer a user remains on the Web site, the more potential exists to influence that user's behavior. Whether the behavior is buying more books, making a bank transaction, or filling out an online home mortgage application, stickiness facilitates conversion, and conversion is key.

As I said in my November/December 2003 column ("Nothing Measured, Nothing Gained," ONLINE, v. 27 n. 6, pp. 53-55), "The end game in marketing-including marketing on the Web-is to attract the right visitors for the lowest cost, turn visitors into consumers or customers (conversion), and build brand loyalty so that those same customers come back repeatedly. With conversion applied directly to a formal campaign or promotional effort, an organization can determine specific return on investment for each new customer. Done successfully, the return of gaining a new customer, and especially a repeat customer, should outweigh the cost of attracting and keeping the customer."

While stickincss is a new word for this application, the idea of influencing behavior and attracting and retaining loyal customers is traditional marketing through and through. However, stickiness can be a double-edged sword. Before you go bragging to management about the average duration of visitor sessions, there's something else you should know: Not all stickiness is good. In fact, long visits may be an indicator of a site's lack of performance which plays out with long visit durations as users bump around trying to figure out how to use the site.

GOOD STICKIIMESS VERSUS BAD STICKIIMESS

Good stickiness increases the likelihood of converting users to consumers and developing brand loyalty across products and services. Good stickiness also translates to lowered costs to manage existing customers since retaining loyal, repeat customers is cheaper than attracting new customers or regaining those who may have had a bad experience previously. Analyzing visit duration raw data (minutes and/or seconds) can be misleading since good and bad stickiness can look the same. Two separate areas of your Web site could have similar visit durations but indicate severely different meanings for site performance. For example, taking 10 minutes to fill out a simple online form as compared to browsing an online store for 10 minutes to identify products and make a purchase speaks volumes with regards to a site's usability.

Understanding stickiness requires further analysis beyond accepting visit duration numbers at face value. Stickiness is all about the user experience: What did the user do during the visit? Where did the user click? Where did the user not click? Looking at where users go click-by-click is referred to as clickstream analysis, and it can provide useful clues to user behavior.

Understanding a Web site's clickstream is important to understanding user behavior. Clickstream data also helps to establish an expected threshold of time required to move through a site in order to complete a transaction or navigate between information or services. Analyzing clickstream data associated with completing an online form could reflect repeated back-clicking by the user or repeated attempts to submit the form due to missing required form data. Regardless, understanding the average amount of time it takes to navigate the critical paths of your site helps to set thresholds for the average amount of time it would take most users to move through the site and complete a transaction such as purchasing a book. Visit durations that are too short or too long when compared against these thresholds may indicate poor site design or navigation, or content that is poorly organized or unclear.

Developing a sticky Web site requires understanding the intersection between visit duration and frequency, critical site paths and associated user time thresholds to navigate, and clickstream data. Unfortunately, much of this data is collected and analyzed once the site is already launched. A better approach is to plan and build a sticky site right from the start and use the data mentioned above to confirm the success of your site's stickiness once launched.

WHAT MAKES A WEB SITE STICKY

Consider these recommendations for developing a sticky site:

Keep It Simple

Users have a myriad of options on the Web. If you think you're providing something unique, think again. Your site is likely one of many options the user can visit. How you present your site-its appearance and organization-is the difference between your site and a competitor's site just a few clicks away. Keeping it simple may be the only thing setting you apart from other sites who may be following the philosophy that busier is better. Keeping it simple means designing pages to minimize load time; organizing content to facilitate scanning and, where appropriate, online reading and/or printing; and providing the necessary cues to make it obvious what you want the user to do.

Deliver Value with Every "Click"

Delivering what users need when they need it is a surefire way to have a successful Web site. Users come to your site with an expectation that they'll find what they need. How you meet expectations will mean the difference between one-time and repeat visitors. Let users know up front what you have to offer so they can make a value judgment right away without wasting time.

Keep Content Fresh and Compelling

Writing and keeping content up-to-date is likely one of the most expensive tasks associated with Web site management. Some organizations get around this issue by purchasing "canned" content and then massaging it to call it their own. However, if you're buying content, some of your competitors may be buying this content too, and the competitive edge that comes with being unique is lost. There's no doubt creating original content is time-consuming and expensive; however, original content is certainly more compelling for users.

Tailor the User Experience

My Yahoo! is a high-profile Web site offering users the ability to customize their environment, meeting the GenX mind-set of "it's all about me" or, in this case, "my." Tailoring allows users to adapt the presentation of the page and to set up an interest profile to better match content to interests. Allowing users to customize their experience scores high marks for stickiness.

Engage Your Users Right from the Start

Increasingly, Web site users are changing from passive browsers to active participants. The more users are actively engaged, the longer they'll remain on the Web site-to shop, chat, or play. Interactivity used sparingly and correctly makes a site more enjoyable to use. However, interactivity needs to provide value. Don't fall into the old excuse that users aren't equipped with the latest plug-ins to view video or hear audio. Users are more sophisticated than you think, and this excuse is quickly becoming passé.

It's Not All About You

When I think about user-centric design, there's a saying that has stuck with me for years: "Know thy users for they are not you." If you are not currently engaging end users to provide feedback during your Web site planning and design phase, you should. Far too many Web sites simply mirror an ineffective, often rigid organizational structure that neither users nor, for that matter, company employees can navigate. A user-centric design focus will mitigate the cube-farm design approach and provide users with the space they need to navigate, interact, and benefit from your site's offerings. Giving many options for user feedback can help you prioritize site enhancements based on their direct value to the user base.

Do You Trust Me?

Trust is the number one reason successful companies engender brand loyalty. Customers want to do business and repeat business with companies they trust. Each visitor to your Web site makes a decision regarding your site that will effect future browsing behavior. In general, this evaluation is based on three criteria: Does this site provide value? Are my needs met? Was it a good experience? Customers who have a positive experience at your site are more likely to visit again and will likely tell others; best of all, word-of-mouth advertising is free!

Blue Light Special

Can any of us imagine our shopping lives pre-Web? Who hasn't shopped in the wee hours of the morning dressed only in pajamas and slippers with bedraggled hair that only a mother could love? Filling your online shopping cart is without a doubt the Internet's killer application. Stickiness for online commerce means making the user's shopping experience better than the brick-and-mortar equivalent.

Don't Waste My Time

Put your site on a "fluff diet and get rid of most of the markets extolling the virtues of the organization. Users are far too sophisticated for this type of unsolicited dribble and just want to be on their way to the information and services that matter. The more useless content they have to slog through, the more likely they'll bail and choose another site with which to do business.

What's in Your Toolbelt?

Another great way to add value and increase stickiness is to provide tools that users can take advantage of while browsing your site. For instance, most mortgage companies now offer a mortgage rate calculator to allow users to quickly determine their monthly payment. Most investment firms allow users to calculate their return on investment and the necessary income for retirement. But the key to usefulness in the eyes of users is often not a broad set of tools, but rather their integration based on users' needs. A 401K site that supports usable and integrated tools, from short-term needs like transaction execution to long-term needs like retirement planning, can provide true value to account holders.

While Web site stickiness is an important concept and measure to be aware of, it is by no means a measure that can be considered in isolation to other performance metrics. Getting the "big picture" view of Web site performance requires constant monitoring, going well beyond crunching the data provided from Web server traffic analysis packages like NetlQ's WebTrends. A complete and colorful picture of Web site performance is difficult to paint by numbers only. A true understanding of site performance requires testing with users and receiving their valuable feedback. This type of face-to-face data collection combined with use data collected from your Web servers is the most complete and thorough strategy to understanding site performance.

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