It's Time for Traffic Stats to Die

Yahoo's Chief of Insights reflects what Evan Williams and I have been saying for awhile now: the page view is indeed dead. He's calling on the industry to develop new metrics that measure this new world more accurately. Amen to that. So let's start the debate. What will succeed the almighty page view?

I am going to make an argument that whatever succeeds the page view (RIP) needs to go beyond counting traffic. In a Long Tail world we shouldn't care about big amalgamated numbers. Marketers are going to need to reach atomized targets who will hopefully go and spread the message to others. This could be a universe of five our six people in some cases. We want to impact the right "cells" so that they go out and multiply.

Everyone loves a good footrace. We're obsessed with knowing what the top movie, TV show, web site, songs are. We like to follow the standings and track the tallest, biggest whatevers in the world. The problem is that it's all about micro now. Marketers want to build sustained relationships with small groups that will hopefully create a multiplier effect.

That my friends means death to all traffic stats. They're irrelevant in this new era. Do I expect this to shift anytime soon? Probably not. The advertising economy is built on reach. It's time for it to change to depth.

Comments

[John Wall]

I live and die by conversions, numbers further upstream don't matter to me.

[TJ Mahony]

Traditional web stats aren't bad - they are just the beginning of a much more extensive end.

Steve, I scroll down 5 posts and you celebrate Quantcast - a new and exciting offering I think is pushing the transparency of locally reported stats.

"This is powerful stuff and I find I am tapping into their site almost on a daily basis."

So which is it? Should traditional stats die or are they the foundation of a bigger question that can be addressed with more sophisticated metrics?

[Allen Stern]

Steve - I created a post around the same time as your last one in this topic.
http://centernetworks.com/death-of-page-views

I also started a Wiki on:
interactionmetrics.org

I agree with you about the need to change the way metrics are viewed. I mean think about it, the page view has been used since the hit became a scam in the mid90s. WebTrends has never changed since version 1.

I would love to chat with you sometime about this - if you could shoot me a mail on allen@centernetworks.com.

[Carlos Granier-Phelps]

Steve, I've been writing about this for quite some time now, specially about internet-video stats and how the current page-view model is meaningless.

See:

http://red66.com/blog/2006/12/gaming-the-cheaters/

and here:

http://red66.com/blog/2006/11/a-recap-of-recent-articles/

for more on the subject.

Why aren't we tracking real video views (and how far through did viewers get)? It's not like some new technology needs to be invented. Let's talk... and let's push for change.

[deb schultz]

pageviews are indeed meaningless in an era of engagement (but you already know how I feel about this.;). Keep pushing the envelope.

[J.J. Arnold]

It seems to me the issue is one of how to measure influence -- not reach. What determines influence, of course, is the tricky party. Nielsen (and others) of course have built huge businesses out of measuring and selling the value of reach. Who (and by what methods) will finally measure influence. The RIGHT eyeballs are better than LOTS of eyeballs. The best example I know of is PLUM ( www.plumtv.com ) - the network of local TV channels and websites tied to content from hot destinations like Vail and the Hamptons. LA, New York and other power centers convene here and consume local media in a "just us" kind of way. Seems small potatoes, maybe -- but the likes of Tom Freston, Kate Spade and legendary fund manager James Pollatta just ponied up $20 million to help grow this little group of local story tellers. Perhaps part of the solution is creating media that is hyperlocal, connected to influencers and meaured by quality/desirability not quantity of audience.

[Max Kalehoff]

Steve,
I agree with your direction, but "depth" alone is a bit naive. Just talk to someone who actually buys media. It is a mix of macro, micro, depth and reach. Wait, there's also frequency, and that new thing called conversation and interaction mixed in there.

Max

[jlewin]

Steve

The headline is catchy - but also pretty misleading.

Page views aren't the same as traffic stats, so even if page views go the way of "hits" stats will remain as important as ever.

The point you should be making is that smart advertisers don't base their placement decisions on a site's stats, but on the results that the site delivers.

[Eric]

I agree here. I like the idea of depth, but it should be combined with reach. I think a strong emphasis could be placed on time on a site and click interaction. Unfortunatley it seems that cookies and tracking will become more important. If Googles system can detect multiple clicks from the same computer then there will soon be a way to detect human clicks and interaction on a site vs. a computer or other non-human element.

[Marcelo Antelo]

It looks pretty obvious why Yahoo thinks it´s nice to change, ah?

[Shel Holtz]

Agree with the comment above -- there's more to traffic stats than page views. I still think there's some value to knowing where people came from, where they went when they left, what path they followed to get to the content they viewed, etc. It doesn't help set ad rates, but it can certainly help improve the likelihood that target audiences will find what you hope they will find.

[kevin]

Modern tracking for video is allowing us to see who has watched a video, who they have sent it to, what action those recepients took and on and on. This requires the head of this email chain to register, if even with only an email address. Are all visitors to all sites willing to register? Something to think about when considering the viewers experience and what road blocks exsist that detract from viewers engaging or passing content along.

[Hooman Radfar]

Steve, you discuss the atomization of the web as a major contributor to the demise of the page view. That being said, however, I am curious as to what you think the next big metrics will be for widgets? My company, Clearspring, offers a syndication platform that has extremely powerful widget analytics. Some statistics we track are widget views, widget locations, and viral hubs - just to name a few. We have a ton of other metrics that we collect. I am curious as to what metrics YOU think will be important in the coming years.