Being Analytical

TigerBlog regularly likes to check on the analytics to see what the audience for Princeton Athletics clicks on more than anything else.

There's a lot to be learned from these numbers, and rational conclusions can be made about what it is that people want to see. And how they see it.

For instance, what percentage of visitors to goprincetontigers.com since the start of the current academic year have come from a desktop computer versus a mobile device? Guesses?

The number of visitors to the webpage tells you very little. What you really need to know is how they are accessing the site and what they're hoping to find on the site.

That's what the analytics numbers show you.

Anyway, before TB forgets, this academic year, the percentage of people who have viewed the website on a computer is 41.46. That means the percentage who have viewed it on a mobile device is 59.54, which is actually lower than TB would have figured.

One thing that TB can check easily is which bios of which athletes are the most viewed. This is informative and interesting.

For instance, which Princeton athlete would you guess has had his/her bio viewed the most since the start of the academic year? Guesses on this one?

If TigerBlog didn't know better, he'd guess that the two most viewed bios on goprincetontigers would belong to Bella Alarie and John Lovett. Instead, they rank second and fifth.

How about Michael Sowers? Nope. He's ninth.

Jesper Horsted? He's 14th, or 13 spots lower than he is on Princeton's career receptions and receiving touchdowns list.

He was a bit surprised to learn who No. 1 was. And that No. 1 had three other teammates in the top eight.

Does that narrow it down for you at all? Nope? Want to guess the team at least?

Here's a hint - the four athletes in the top eight all competed at the NCAA championships.

Did you guess wrestling?

The No. 1 most-viewed bio this academic year is by far freshman All-America wrestler Patrick Glory. His bio has been viewed 9,199 times so far this academic year. Alarie, in second, is at 7,141.

Matthew Kolodzik, now a three-time All-America, is third. Patrick Brucki, Princeton's third All-America, was sixth, and NCAA qualifier Quincy Monday was eighth.

Who made up the rest of the top 10? A pair of very highly regarded freshmen athletes are in there, with Brevin White in fourth and Jaelin Llewellyn in seventh.

Who is 10th? A men's basketball player. Which one? Ethan Wright.

The second most-viewed women's basketball player's bio is that of freshman Julia Cunningham, who is 12th overall. Cunningham got a lot of attention in the Ivy League championship game on ESPNU. 

There are 221 Princeton athletes whose bios have been viewed at least 1,000 times. Maybe five percent of stories that get written for the webpage have that many views. What does this suggest?

By the way, TB can change the date parameters to be able to see any starting point and ending point.

Interestingly, if you go back three years, then the 1-2-3 are Sowers, Alarie and Kolodzik. Glory, despite being a freshman, is still fourth.

If you go back just seven days, then nine of the top 10 are lacrosse players (six men, three women), led by Sowers, Emmet Cordrey and George Baughan. This isn't surprising, since, like Cunningham, those three got a ton of exposure in the nationally televised win over Denver last Tuesday.

Who's the 10th on the list for the current week? You'll probably have the same reaction as TigerBlog's, which was "wait, who? Oh yeah, makes sense."

The answer is Charlie Volker, the running back on the football team. Why Volker now? Because he had a huge performance at Princeton's Pro Day last week.

Among other things, Volker ran a 4.46 40-yard dash, which is really good. TB read some follow up afterwards about how Volker opened some eyes with his performance.

TigerBlog is very interested in how Princeton does at the NFL draft and then in subsequent training camps. He's almost positive at least one of the four guys from the Pro Day will be on an NFL roster next year, maybe more.

Meanwhile, back at the analytics, it's just another sign of where this business has gone since TigerBlog started working here all those years ago.

The key is to understand what it all means and then use that information to provide the best content, packaged and delivered in the best possible way.