Statistics are an unending struggle for internet marketing. Understandably, clients always want some hard facts to demonstrate that their money isn’t going to waste - but what numbers do you give them?
Web site traffic statistics are famously variable in interpretation. Since no traffic service has a handle on the actual statistics for all website traffic, the numbers are usually based on particularly selective data sets. Rand Fishkin gave his detailed report yesterday on Alexa and Hitwise data, comparing them to the data provided through Feedburner and Indextools. The numbers tell it all - different statistics services provide vastly different data.
Imagine that all the webdev category sites receive 9 million uniques per day.
Pimpyourpro.com - 9 mil x 2.07% = 186,300 visitors per day
SEOmoz.org - 9 mil x 0.01% = 900 visitors per day
In reality it should be something like:
SEOmoz.org - 9 mil x 0.085% = 7650 visitors per day
7650 visitors a day is based on SEOmoz’s real visitor traffic. The other data is based on percentage of traffic as reported by Hitwise - see a problem?
So, given that the easily available data is, for practical purposes, only usable as a very general guideline, what kind of data should you actually report to your clients?
Recently, this question was asked at Cre8asiteForums. The answers vary - but the essential focus is that the only meaningful statistics to report must be based on the site’s business goals.
- Focus reporting on specific metrics: income earned, referrals, registrations, whatever is considered a success for your site’s conversions.
- Establish objectives for the campaign. The more specific the goal the better - and be realistic.
- Don’t depend on any statistic that you need to convince your client is relevant. If they don’t understand that tracking campaign revenue is relevant, it may be that you don’t want to be working with them!
- Identify the characteristics of a successful conversion. Differentiate between visitors who purchase the product and those who don’t. Determine everything you can which is different about these two key groups of visitors.
Pure traffic has some place in reporting - even if the traffic isn’t converting, a lot of traffic means greater exposure for your web business. But pure traffic numbers shouldn’t be the highlight of your statistics analysis. It’s worth mentioning any increase, but the bottom line is not directly related to visitors - it’s all about sales.
This blog receives very little comment spam. This has a lot to do, I’m sure, with the fact that all comments are moderated. There’s very little motivation to spam a blog which is using comment moderation - after all, it’s not terribly likely that your cialis/viagra spam post will be making it through my very-human filter.
Every once in a while, however, I do receive some kind of comment which is very suggestive of spam - in the form of blatant marketing.
Today, for example, I received the following comment on a follow-up post I wrote about Dumbfind’s advertising program:
I think DumbFind is great, Congrads guys. Check out our recent web portal. Sprinko.com is a Fun way to search the web for news, images, articles, encyclopedia, dictionary and videos. Displays mini site images on all search results for better efficiency and site decision. Sprinko Note is a fast and easy way to paste content and send to an email with one click, no log-in required. Double click on any word and instant definition will pop-up
Now, does this read like sincere commentary? Not especially. It’s certainly not timely - since the original post was written in April of 2006. No, it reads like what I’m going to choose to call marketing spam.
Comment spam seems to be divided into a couple of categories - complete garbage (nonsense words pasted together) and publicity-raising. There’s a whole spectrum between the two, transitioning all the way into some very sincere and well-worded comments which are possibly made purely to get the person’s name or website better known. The challenge can be in identifying that middle-ground where a comment transitions from useful to spam.
This comment I received falls directly into the spam category. Why? Because it doesn’t even make more than a half-hearted effort to reference the post. The 7 word statement which relates to Dumbfind hardly manages to indicate any relationship to my thoughts. There’s no transition of any kind before the author breaks straight into marketing spiel, and no "real person" is associated with the comments.
Interestingly enough, this spam comment is not apparently for links. The comments contained no links; and the url supplied was for the profile of the Sprinko Blogspot account. Overall, a three-click trace to actual reach the Sprinko web portal.
So what has this comment accomplished?
Well, it’s made me aware of the Sprinko.com web portal. I did, in fact, go to the site. It was about what I expected; a fairly generic web portal with a couple uninspiring extra features. I’m not going to take the time to review it in any serious way for two reasons. First, my first impressions are that the site is pretty amateurish. Everything I see is fairly average. Second, I’m not willing to spend a lot of time on a site which uses this kind of marketing technique. My intent, originally, was to write a vitriolic review - but the site doesn’t actually merit that. It’s nothing special, either in a positive or a negative light.
Ultimately, what’s the worse review - a passionate complaint, or a shrug of the shoulders and dismissal?
It’s hard to resist writing about a piece of news like Danny Sullivan leaving Search Engine Watch. Danny is one of the "founding fathers", so to speak, of the search marketing industry - and Search Engine Watch was his brain-child. Although the activities at Search Engine Watch - blogging, article-writing and forum discussions - will continue forward under new management, the absence of Danny’s characteristic voice will certainly be noticed.
I’m far from the most qualified to write about this - I’ve never met Danny, so really I’m just going to point to a few other sources:
He’ll still be busy - the Daily Search Cast will continue at it’s new location, and it’s hard to imagine that he won’t either be snatched up by some search company or start his own. Watch Daggle.com for information on Danny’s new activities!