VDP: Cause or Effect?

[Alex Snyder]

When I look at clickstreams I see incredible activity on VLPs. So much so that I personally prefer to look at listings pages vs details pages as behavior indicators (VLPs are a better way to understand customer motivations). The VDP isn't always an exact measure of shopper interest; sometimes that click is a mistake or something on that page turned the shopper off.

On top of that, how many new Toyota Camry LEs does one have to view VDPs of when you have 60 in stock? The VLP usually gives you the color, so save a click. Joe mentions the dealer who stocks the common vehicles from auction/rental fleets.... same thing. How many VDPs of those do you have to hit? How many VDPs does a future floor up have to hit after they've determined you have plenty of selection?

And last but not least, extremely engaged shoppers visit your website repeatedly. They'll hit the VDP to get the details (maybe print or screenshot it too) then they'll "repeat visit" back to the VLP to see if the car is still there or if the price has changed. Some of those only hit a VDP on the first visit and never venture back beyond the VLP again... then they become a floor up.

In regards to solely placing emphasis ONLY on the VDP metric, I believe those companies are doing an injustice to the full picture of what is really going on. They're putting horse blinders on our decision makers.

 

[Tallcool1]

We started tracking and recording every session on our website. On any given day, 20% of our entire website activity consists of sessions that have no mouse movement, or activity. These visits are so fast that they do not even register a session time. All of these sessions originate in Mountain View CA.

If these sessions in fact are counted as clicks within our Google Analytics, then that just sucks. I wouldn't think they would be included since Google is the primary source of these clicks however, they are included within our in house numbers.

The first (but NOT the last) explanation I have gotten is that these clicks are in fact the result of content bots.

I am new, so please forgive the lack of terminology.

 

[ed.brooks]

We started tracking and recording every session on our website. On any given day, 20% of our entire website activity consists of sessions that have no mouse movement, or activity. These visits are so fast that they do not even register a session time. All of these sessions originate in Mountain View CA.

If these sessions in fact are counted as clicks within our Google Analytics, then that just sucks. I wouldn't think they would be included since Google is the primary source of these clicks however, they are included within our in house numbers.

The first (but NOT the last) explanation I have gotten is that these clicks are in fact the result of content bots.

I am new, so please forgive the lack of terminology.

Clint, have you turned on "Bot and Spider Filtering" in Google Analytics?
Introducing Bot and Spider Filtering

 

[Tallcool1]

Not that I know, but if I haven't then I am getting ready to!

Thanks Ed!

Look at that, I just doubled my total Post count in 1 day!