Credit union website analytics: mysteries we can’t explain

We’ve been building and managing credit union websites for a long time. Over the years we’ve pondered a lot of Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Microsoft Clarity data, and used that information to guide website strategies, optimize search results, and power continuous improvements. 

And yet… there are still some mysteries lurking in those numbers, things we’ve seen but can’t explain. Most CU website stats fall into a fairly predictable range, and the variations usually make sense once you learn more about a credit union and its members.

But some of these numbers are all over the place, and the reasons remain mysteriously murky.

Mobile vs. desktop usage in Google Analytics

If we had to pick an average, we’d say credit union website visits are roughly 55% mobile vs. 45% or so desktop. Over time, that average has been creeping more and more toward the  mobile side. And yet there are outliers; some CUs are as high as 70% or 75% mobile, some are close to 75% desktop devices.

Sometimes there’s an explanation; CUs with younger or lower income memberships often tend to have higher mobile device usage. Credit unions that serve large “office” organizations, like government or universities, may tend to have higher desktop usage since a lot of people log in from work.

And yet… sometimes we honestly can’t explain why a particular CU skews so far one way or the other. 

Mobile vs. desktop searches in Google Search Console

On a closely related note, Google Search Console (GSC) gives you all kinds of valuable data on searches people perform through Google that land people on your site (GSC is how people find you in Google searches; Analytics tracks what they do on your site).

What we’ve never quite managed to explain is the wide variation in mobile searches vs. desktop. What’s even stranger is that these often don’t correlate to the mobile/desktop traffic stats as above. For example, a CU that’s roughly 50% mobile, 50% desktop in site visits will sometimes skew more than 75% mobile in Google searches, for reasons we can’t quite explain.

Website traffic per member

As part of managing hosting, we keep an eye on overall traffic and resource usage. One of the server stats we track is monthly uncached website visits divided by the number of members. Essentially, it’s a measure of how often each member visits the site on average. 

This one is a real mystery because the highest numbers are over five times the lowest, and so far we’re not sure why. Most are somewhere in the middle, but even credit unions of similar size, membership, and mission are all over the place. Why? So far we haven’t found a way to correlate or explain the mystery with member demographics, app usage, marketing strategy, branch metrics, or other characteristics.

Old names and URLs hang around. And around.

We’ve helped quite a few credit unions with name changes, and built websites for some of these and other CUs following name changes. And one enduring mystery is why those old names and URLs from old websites hang around in the search and site stats for ten or twelve years or more.

In Google Search Console, you’ll continue to see significant numbers of references to old names many years after the fact. And in Google Analytics, it’s a little harder to get referrer data nowadays (here are some instructions for creating an “Exploration” report), but you’ll likely see forwards from old domains and old URLs for a decade or more.

Why? “People are stubborn” is one explanation, and part of the mix, but another might be that people might elect to keep their old bookmarks as they upgrade computers and phones for many years. But overall, we’re still a little puzzled why old names hang around so long when the internet otherwise changes so fast.

How do your website stats stack up, and what do you think the variations mean? And how might you explain the differences for your credit union? Let’s talk!

Brian Wringer
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