Connecting the Clicks

Web tracking is a way for institutions to monitor how visitors interact with their website. This can include:

• Which pages are viewed
• How often visitors return
• How much time they spend engaging with specific content

While website analytics tools can provide overall traffic statistics, CRM-based web tracking takes things a step further by connecting activity to individual student records. This allows enrollment teams to move beyond anonymous pageviews and gain insight into the interests and behaviors of prospective students.

Once a website visitor is identified and matched to an existing record in your CRM, their website activity can be listed within their student profile. This process is often referred to as record stitching.

Record stitching helps admissions and enrollment teams understand how website engagement fits into a student’s broader recruitment journey. Instead of viewing a student only through inquiries, applications, and event registrations, institutions can also see the digital interactions that occurred between those milestones.

Both Slate and Element451 offer tools that allow institutions to connect website activity to prospective student records.

In Slate, this functionality is typically accomplished through Ping, while Element451 uses its Tracking Pixel. Although the implementation details may differ, the goal is the same: providing enrollment teams with greater visibility into how students engage with online content.

For example, a student may visit the financial aid website multiple times over the course of a week, spend several minutes reviewing scholarship information, or repeatedly return to a specific academic program page. These patterns can provide valuable insight into the student’s interests and help staff determine when additional outreach may be appropriate.

For a portal, landing page, or website, you can look beyond basic page views and start answering questions like:

How many students are actually visiting it?
See how many prospective students, applicants, admitted students, or deposited students viewed the page.

Who is using it?
If tracking connects the visitor to the CRM record, you can segment engagement by population — prospects vs. applicants, domestic vs. international, program, student type, territory, etc.

What content gets attention?
Which pages are students returning to? Are they looking at financial aid, housing, academic programs, visit information, or next steps?

What happens next?
After viewing the page, did they register for a visit, submit an application, complete a missing item, accept an offer, or deposit?

Where are students dropping off?
If 1,000 admitted students visit a portal, but very few click into housing or complete the enrollment steps, that tells you something very different from simply knowing the portal received 1,000 visits.

Website activity becomes even more valuable when combined with other engagement data already stored in the CRM.

By looking at web activity alongside email interactions, event registrations, form submissions, chatbot conversations, and application activity, enrollment teams can create a more complete picture of the student. This broader context helps staff understand not just what students are doing, but what may be motivating those actions.

One of the most common uses of web tracking data is personalization — and for good reason.

Rather than sending the same message to every student, institutions can tailor communications based on the topics, programs, and resources a student has actively explored. A student researching financial aid may benefit from scholarship information, while a student spending significant time on academic program pages may be more interested in curriculum details or faculty highlights.

This approach helps make communications more relevant, timely, and useful.

Web tracking can also help enrollment teams identify students who are demonstrating higher levels of engagement.

Repeated visits to key pages, extended time on site, or increased activity over a short period may indicate that a student is moving closer to making an enrollment decision. These insights can help admissions counselors prioritize outreach efforts and focus attention where it may have the greatest impact.

Students who spend time reviewing information about campus visits, open houses, information sessions, or virtual events may be strong candidates for targeted invitations and reminders. By identifying interest early, institutions can connect students with events that align with their needs and interests while helping improve attendance rates.