Forum Moderators: not2easy
I'd like to discuss one set of Content metrics that I see as vital. You need to know about visits. I am going to explain two stacked bar charts, each showing the last 45 days. I would arrange them across the page with the oldest dat to the lest.
Each stacked bar should show: Visitors Returning within 30 days, Visitors After 30 days and First-time Visitors (I'd count a visitor older that 90 days as a first-time visitor again). The data should show unique visitors by day.
A second chart showing the same data should change the population so that it only counts a visitors most recent visit i.e if a visitor came onto the site last Tuesday and last Friday, count him and his status from last Friday only.
I think these charts can tell you a tremendous amount. They show patterns of visits, identify jumps during promotions or in response to emailings. You'll get an idea of attrition.
Notice I am not talking about the number of pages they visited just visitor frequency.
How do others measure the success of their content? Can you easily show this data?
How do others measure the success of their content?
Interesting topic, Cyril. I think the key metrics depend on how your site makes money. A site heavily supported by advertising might emphasize page views more. A site that doesn't depend a lot on frequent visits (e.g., a site that sells expensive items that last a long time) might take a different view still.
Once you know what the key data elements are, then the question of how to display them comes next. Stacked bar charts are good, I think, if you are breaking down the total into two, or at most three, categories. It can be harder to spot trends in the sub-items because only the bottom one is justified to the x-axis.
I like the idea of your second chart cyril, it's something I just don't have available through Webtrends :) Raw logs are the way to go no doubt...
I like to throw the "time spent on page" into it aswell, though I appreciate this can never be truly accurate. Over a scale at least, you get to know what pages are being read and for how long, and find out if equally long pages are taking longer/less time to read. This sort of stat might tell you that a page has bad typos or bad grammar halfway through a document, and people, "in general" are not reading a certain page in the time it would "naturally" take.
My experience is that metrics like I suggested are just not readily available at most sites that need them.
Following up on the Page Views metrics. I feel these are often over-rated because they say more about navigation systems than the attractiveness of the page. Sales are the key metric when you are selling something. The sale and the source of the sale far outweigh the importance of the page view.
Webmasters are overly enamoured with traffic logs. They sort and resort them in a million different ways while the marketing people are often asking a different set of questions. Is our content effective? Are our advertising dollars being well spent. Is the emailing list we are renting producing results?
How do others measure the success of their content? Can you easily show this data?
I measure it in dollar signs. That's the best metric I can think of. :-)
I am inferring you don't even try to meause the success of your content. This is very common especially if your background is technical rather than the marketing side.
Content sites are attracting customers by a combination of content and advertising. If only advertising or content is performing well, the bottom line can not tell you which which one is underperforming.
I am inferring you don't even try to meause the success of your content. This is very common especially if your background is technical rather than the marketing side.
Okay, let's try some other metrics:
1) Page views and unique visitors. Is the content being read?
2) Growth. There will always be peaks and valleys, but if you were to graph your weekly and monthly traffic, would the long-term direction be up rather than down?
3) Reviews and user feedback. Do people say nice things about your site in the press or in e-mail?
4) Unsolicited inbound links. Do directories, libraries, and/or other sites in your topic area link to you without being asked? And if the links are annotated, would you be proud to show the annotations to your mom?
5) News releases, press trips or review copies or merchandise samples if applicable, etc. Do publicists and PR people respect you? Do they regard your site as an important or even a vital outlet for what they're promoting?
6) Have you managed to avoid a listing at websitesthatsuck.com?
None of these metrics translates into a healthier bottom line, but all are useful in measuring site quality--and ultimately, quality is what will keep people coming to your site and (with luck) buying from your advertisers or affiliate merchants.
