Statistics of online reports.

Statistics provide a valuable insight into the usage of online reports: How do access habits change within the course of a year? How popular are individual features? Which pages are most popular among users? An answer to these questions can contribute to the strategic development of online reports.

Online reports: key figures*

*Average usage data from 28 online reports

With print reports, things are not always that simple: If 10,000 of copies of a report are printed and distributed, in the end no one really knows whether they were actually read, how many dead-end addresses there were on the mailing list or which contents were most relevant to the recipients.

Fortunately, things look quite different on the Web. Online reports offer relatively accurate data on whether and how certain sections of a report are used over a specific period of time. At first, the raw data seems to be just like an uncut diamond. Only after having been summarised and compared to other figures do they become more conclusive and meaningful. And this is exactly what nexxar does: Usually, user statistics of all of our online reports are evaluated by midyear. In this article, we will present the key developments based on an evaluation of 28 online reports in 2013.

Increased interest after publication

What information is actually revealed by these data? First of all, it is hardly surprising that the highest usage numbers are registered on the day of publication. As a rule, one could say that the better the report is promoted (see “5 steps to get more users”), the higher the number of visits. Besides, statistics show that high usage numbers on the publication day are usually followed by high access numbers throughout the year. Users seem to keep the report in mind and return to it if required.

Search engines as gatekeepers

Aside from the corporate website, search engines remain one of the most important leaders to online reports. In addition, a website’s ranking on search engines can be actively improved by specific measures of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Features are “a magnet to users”

And what about the usage of web features? Many functions add real value to online reports. The interactive Chart Generator, for instance, allows users to create their own charts of certain key figures – this feature is currently used in 12.3% of all sessions. Another popular feature is the integration of corporate videos such as a CEO statement. Other top features in terms of usage include the search function (12.8% of all sessions) or the possibility to download tables as Excel files (18% of all sessions).

The optimisation of online reports for mobile usage is also gaining in importance. After all, approximately 5.9% of all users already access the reports via smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices. Compared to last year, the number of mobile users has increased by 29.1%.