I’ve been engrossed in the topic of web measurement the past couple weeks, with a two-part series here at MediaShift. In the first part, I wondered why the web, which is supposed to be the most measurable medium ever (putting TV and radio audience measurement to shame), is still so inconsistent with so few standards in place. If you write a blog or run a website, what web traffic numbers do you trust? Your own server logs, or web analytics firms such as WebTrends or Omniture, or Alexa or HitWise? Or do you feel that Nielsen and comScore do a decent job of gauging traffic? How do you think web measurement could be improved? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I’ll run the best ones in a future Your Take Roundup.
What services do you trust for measuring web traffic to your site?
July 30, 2007
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First, Id like to thank you for tackling this complex subject. It was a well-written, straightforward examination of a issue Ive been following for years.
I manage several web sites for a large academic medical center that get around 1.6 million visitors per month. To track our traffic, we use a combination of Webtrends for server logs, and Google Analytics (GA) for hosted reports. GA uses code embedded in our pages that sends data back to Google for analysis. The numbers between both systems are very close.
For competitive information we use Quantcast. It has been fairly accurate, even on domains with low traffic, and the demographic information provided is very useful.
Cant speak to HitWise, ComScore or Nielson – they are out of our price range
I use a homespun system written in an hour last week. If anyone needs additions, please let me know in the comments. Many thanks!
I run the website for a small non-profit democracy rights group and use Google Analytics.