Website metrics that make your boss sit up and listen

It’s not uncommon for senior managers’ eyes to glaze over when presented with web metrics. They can be technical, difficult to understand and far removed from business objectives. But select the right measures and you will get your boss’s attention.

In July 2007, Nielsen-Netratings – a major web analysis company – announced it was going to add “time spent” to its measurements, and pointed out that “page views” had become less relevant thanks to technology and user behaviour.

This decision has reignited the debate about website metrics and how to distil activity on your site to a few simple measures of success.

 

What’s wrong with the good old page view?

There’s no doubt these fundamental changes in behaviour have made measurement more difficult. But if you return to first principles, the way forward should be much clearer.

Firstly, what is the point in trying to measure things happening on your website? The usual aim is provide a summary of activity which you can report to stakeholders – senior management, users, advertisers, and so on – as well as using to set broad targets for improvement.

In both cases the objective is not complexity or masses of detail, but a small number of meaningful figures reflecting user engagement. This is something that will vary depending on what a website aims to do.

 

Metrics should reflect site objectives

Somewhere – maybe hidden away in a dusty Word document or just carried in your head - somewhere you have a list of site objectives. These objectives should be determining your choice of metrics.

For example, a photo-sharing community might decide to measure its engagement levels by total photos uploaded or viewed.

A bank of business white papers could choose to measure time spent on the site, or number of downloads.

In some cases, choosing metrics might require some lateral or counter-intuitive thinking. For example, Google would be interested in reducing the number of page views per search as a sign of how effective its service is.

 

Some alternative metrics

• Number of active users would reflect engagement and activity on a web community

• Number of views or listens would reflect the success of a site offering media, such as the BBC’s “Listen Again” section.

• Number of comments made would give a good indication of engagement on a blog or news site.

• Number of downloads would be useful to know for a website offering freeware or white papers

• Number of clicks made has been suggested as reflecting an “interaction rate”, where users are expected to combine site exploration with use of media and other interactive features

 

With the death of the page view, which metric is best?

The answer is that all of the above are good, but they need to match your site objectives.

Once you’re sure you’re using the right metrics, you will have little difficulty persuading your stakeholders - your boss, your advertiser, or your client – that these changes reflect the new reality and ultimately will give them a better return on their time or money.