Most Visited Pages on CSU, Chico Website

An analysis of the most viewed pages on the CSU, Chico Web site, 2003 and 2006.

As with the Navigational Structures, I conducted an analysis of the most visited pages in 2003 and repeated it in 2006.

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2003

Statistics for this page were collected from the CSU, Chico web stats page on September 30th, 2003, and represent stats for the year to that point.

The visual mapping below is a good way to visually evaluate the effectiveness of a layout and also a way to find those things that could be moved to a more or less prominent position. These numbers will be a bit skewed from the average because of the prominence of Fall 2003 class schedule links, but overall it's probably a pretty good picture and says a lot about which parts of the page are working and what parts are not.


The most viewed pages in the www.csuchico.edu domain were as follows (red and * indicate links on the home page; the number represents page views in 2003):

1. Home page (1,080,123)
2. *Email (218,815)
   
3. *STCP (145,583)
4. Student Lookup (123,691)
   
5. *Library (113,922)
6. *Class Schedule (88,011)
   
7. *Current Students (53,768)
8. Fall 2003 Class Schedule (45,979)
9. *Campus Directory (37,685)
10. *Colleges & Departments (34,635)
11. *Degrees & Majors (33,924)
12. Skull Model (33,020)
13. Library - Periodical & Journals (28,555)
14. *Faculty & Staff 26,883)
15. Fall 2003 Open Classes (24,107)
16. Faculty Index (Univ Catalog) (23,976)
    
17. *Athletics (23,805)
18. Financial Aid Office (20,992)
19. *University Catalog (20,869)
20. University Catalog - Academic Programs (20,487)
21. Human Resources - Staff Vacancies (18,272)
22. HR - Employment Info (18,229)
23. *Campus Resources (17,176)
24. *Life in Chico (16,746)
25. *Chico Today (16,000)
26. 2003-05 University Catalog (15,410)
27. STCP - Get a Portal Account (15,233)
28. Principles of Strategic Management (14,246)
29. Associated Students (14,101)
30. Library - Resources A-Z (13,352)

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2006

The page view stats were collected on October 4, 2006 and represent statistics for the entire year to that point.

A visual map will give you some idea of location of links to the most viewed pages on the home page (if a link is present).


Of the 30 most visited pages on the site, only 12 were linked to from the home page in 2006, compared to 14 in 2003.

1. CSU, Chico Home Page (5,086,188)
   
2. Progressive Students Union WIKI (538,812)
   
3. *Class Schedule (338,974)
   
4. *Library (306,770)
   
5. Student Computing (300,660)
   
6. Career Planning - Cover Letter Examples (221,485)
   
7. Fall 2006 Class Schedule (190,050)
   
8. Taiwanese Students Asso (177,826)
   
9. *Athletics Home Page (131,646)
   
10. *Colleges and Departments (106,001)
    
11. *Campus Directory (105,880)
    
12. *University Catalog (94,606)
    
13. Spring 2006 Class Schedule (93,165)
    
14. Skull Model (85,066)
    
15. Housing & Food Service (72,050)
    
16. *Email (69,887)
    
17. Indian Caste System (64,154)
    
18. 2005-2007 University Catalog (62,528)
    
19. Taiwanese Students Asso (59,457)
    
20. Library Reference (55,595)
    
21. Job Opportunities (55,521)
    
22. *Degrees & Majors (53,387)
    
23. *Current Students (49,849)
    
24. Athletics - Baseball (45,640)
    
25. *Events and Calendars (44,560)
    
26. *Campus Map (42,214)
    
27. *Life in Chico (41,994)
    
28. Employment Information & Job Opportunities (40,661)
    
29. College of Behavioral & Social Sciences (40,541)
    
30. Library - College and University Rankings (39,281)

Type of Page

There are several kinds of pages among the most viewed. Most are "main pages" - pages that can be reached with one or at most two clicks from the home page. Some are "deep links" - pages that can be reached only with two or more clicks from the home page. A few social networking and course pages also appear in the top 30.

1. CSU, Chico Home Page (Main Page)
   
2. Progressive Students Union WIKI (Social Networking)
   
3. Class Schedule (Main Page)
   
4. Library (Main Page)
   
5. Student Computing (Main Page)
   
6. Career Planning - Cover Letter Examples (Deep Link)
   
7. Fall 2006 Class Schedule (Main Page)
   
8. Taiwanese Students Asso (Social Networking)
   
9. Athletics Home Page (Main Page)
   
10. Colleges and Departments (Main Page)
    
11. Campus Directory (Main Page)
    
12. University Catalog (Main Page)
    
13. Spring 2006 Class Schedule (Main Page)
    
14. Skull Model (Course Page)
    
15. Housing & Food Service (Main Page)
    
16. Email (Main Page)
    
17. Indian Caste System (Course Page)
    
18. 2005-2007 University Catalog (Main Page)
    
19. Taiwanese Students Asso (Social Networking)
    
20. Library Reference (Deep Link)
    
21. Job Opportunities (Deep Link)
    
22. Degrees & Majors (Main Page)
    
23. Current Students (Main Page)
    
24. Athletics - Baseball (Deep Link)
    
25. Events and Calendars (Main Page)
    
26. Campus Map (Main Page)
    
27. Life in Chico (Main Page)
    
28. Employment Information & Job Opportunities (Deep Link)
    
29. College of Behavioral & Social Sciences (Main Page)
    
30. Library - College and University Rankings (Deep Link)

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Comparison

The first thing that is noticeable in comparing 2003 and 2006 is the dramatic increase in page views over that period of time. Most pages experienced a three- to five-fold increase in page views over a three year period. The home page alone went from 1,080,000 page views to over 5,086,000 page views; a 470% increase.

The table below shows the change in ranking of links on the home page from 2003 to 2006. Overall, most of the links retained their relative popularity from 2003 to 2006. Some of the exceptions can be explained by minor changes in the navigation (e.g., Email, to which was added WildcatMail and MS Exchange, obviating the need for most users to click on the Email link).

Interestingly, changing the placement of the Chico Today and Inside Chico links (which was done to increase their visibility), had very little positive effect, and in fact moved Inside Chico from 176th to 241st.

The movement of the Box Office link, over which there was much discussion, had little effect on its relative popularity, moving from 208th to 220th.

The addition of pop-up submenus to the home page navigation also seemed to have little overall impact on the popularity of most pages, though a few pages listed in these submenus (e.g., Class Schedule and Catalog) did move up in popularity. Overall, given that there was virtually no change in the links on the home page, there were no significant changes in the popularity of pages linked from the home page.

Link	Rank 2003	Rank 2006
Class Schedule	6	2
Library	5	3
Athletics	16	8
College & Depts	11	9
Directory	10	10
Catalog	17	11
Email	2	16
Degrees & Majors	12	22
Current Students	7	23
Faculty & Staff	14	24
Chico Today	29	25
Life in Chico	24	27
Contact Us	160	51
Campus Resources	23	52
Administration	86	58
About this Site	241	95
Alumni & Friends	90	118
New & Achievements	315	202
Box Office	208	220
Inside Chico	176	241
Make a Gift	551	432
Help	223	446
Prospective Students
Events & Calendars
Admissions
Bookstore
Registration
Distance Education
Portal Login

Links in gray link to servers other than www.csuchico.edu and cannot be tracked. Green means a link increased up in popularity; red means it declined.