Linda
Seb Chan has done masses of work on this - see his great paper from Indianapolis here: http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/chan-metrics/chan-metrics.html
Because of the way it works, Google Analytics records visitors differently to the way log file analysis systems work. There's plenty of writing online about how this rolls out in reality: http://www.webdesignseo.com/internet-marketing/google-analytics-does-report-less-visitor-traffic.php
Here's some stuff from the COI about how the government see this: http://www.coi.gov.uk/guidance.php?page=235
When we went from log file analysis to Google Analytics on sites I've worked on before, our visitor count typically went down by around 35-40%. It's not unusual. On the other hand, we got better reporting of 'real' visits as opposed to mass visits hidden behind proxy servers - common with sites that have large numbers of education users. And we didn't get robots.
I'm no expert on social media traffic monitoring but I have tracked the growth of Facebook and Twitter traffic to www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk as I've gradually 'switched on' various social media interfaces. Facebook is top referring site, Twitter second in the list. It's worth keeping an eye on how traffic spikes as each of the social media channels is plugged in.
It's always seemed useful to me that we need to have some sort of picture of the sheer numbers/amounts of traffic to expect. Back in 2002/3 I was keen to work out what plausible visitor numbers were, in relation to cost per visit calculations we were doing to prepare a Culture Online bid. Now I think it would be useful if someone at governmental or agency (ie ACE, MLA or CT) level were to propose some ball park figures for reasonable expected audiences depending on website type, audience and size of institution.
Nailing my colours to the mast, I've seen good, low-budget local museum websites with around 500 to 1500 visitors (or visitor sessions) per month. Bigger regionals, and local authority groups might get around 3000 to say, 10,000 visits per month. A national site with a high profile, attached to a designated collection or similar - perhaps 15,000 to 50,000 visits per month. Of course, the top national sites get much more - the top ten museum websites are all on 500,000 visits per month upwards to a million and beyond.
What do MCG people think of these figures? Does your website get more, or less? Can we develop a notion of a 'median' level of traffic, around which funder or staff expectations or content strategy can be discussed? It would certainly help with funding bids.
Jon Pratty
Jon Pratty
Publisher: Disability Arts Online
Digital publishing consultant: culture sector
Journalist: arts, technology and society
www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk
http://machineculture.wordpress.com
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Twitter/jon_pratty
07739 287392
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Linda Ellis
Sent: 20 August 2009 09:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Web stats
The discussion about web stats for Creative Spaces got me thinking about my organisations web stats.
We have been using GoogleStats for a year now alongside StatCounter. GoogleStats gives me Unique Visits whereas StatCounter gives me Unique Visitors so they aren't measuring quite the same thing but, like others it seems, the results from GoogleStats are consistently lower.
Does anybody have an explanation for why this is?
I'm always telling my managers that the important thing with web stats is to look at trends and only compare like with like as far as possible but our governing bodies and funders are looking at web stats from all sorts of sources and it can be difficult to explain why our web stats are lower or higher than other museums.
I remember a while back someone - MLA? - did a survey of how we collect web stats in the museums sector and as well as asking about what web package was used also asked questions like "Does your organisation collect data on how many documents / images are download from your website?" Does anybody know if the results of that survey were ever published?
And what about museums using Flickr, YouTube etc. How do you monitor web usage of resources to these sorts of site?
Linda Ellis
Project Manager Website
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Lichfield Street
Wolverhampton
West Midlands
WV1 1DU
tel. 01902 552 048
fax. 01902 552 053
www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
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