In specific terms of finer granularity
than country, and taking into account the metrics unreliable, together
with ambiguities imposed by ISP location, and robot and spider activity,
snapshot reporting could be usefully and perhaps more advantageously be
communally developed, were the survey recommendations to be presented in
ENGLISH.
Dear All
Last year, HEIRNET carried out a survey of
historic information resources to find out how they collect web metrics
and what they do with them. Many thanks to the many of you who participated
in this. A short report is now available from the HEIRNET website (on the
homepage): www.britarch.ac.uk/heirnet.
This report contains a set of ten draft recommendations, which I’ve included
below. It would be valuable to have your input and feedback on these recommendations.
If you have any comments, you can send them direct to me, preferably before
31 May.
The more information we have on the ways
in which we all collect and study web metrics, the more we can potentially
‘pool’ our data and adopt common approaches. The idea is that while information
providers inevitably differ, being able to cross-compare our data should
enable greater discussion of how we can potentially increase audiences
and monitor usage more effectively.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
All the best
Dan.
________________
Dr Dan Hull
Head of Information & Communications
Council for British Archaeology, St Mary's House, 66 Bootham, York YO30
7BZ
tel 01904 671417, fax 01904 671384
A Company Limited by Guarantee, registered in England 1760254
& Registered Charity 287815.
Are you a member of the CBA?
www.britarch.ac.uk/join
Draft recommendations
1. It
is recommended that access statistics are collected and analysed by HEIRs
at least quarterly and that if analysis is done more frequently then results
can be aggregated into quarterly reports for cross-comparison.
2. Given
the difficulties of equating IP addresses with unique users due to IP pools
etc., it is not recommended that metrics on IP adressess are used. Rather,
more specific information collected from registered users and web surveys
can be used and, where necessary, extrapolated to give a general impression
of total users and user breakdown
3. In
terms of user location at finer granularity than country, ambiguities imposed
by ISP location make the collection of such information on the basis of
metrics unreliable. It may be better to rely on user registration information,
as above
4. It
is surprising that less than half of HEIRs analyse information on how users
reached their website. Understanding how our sites are discovered is an
important tool in making them more discoverable, so logging of referring
sites and (where possible/applicable) search terms is desirable.
5. It
is useful to draw a distinction between information collected on access
statistics and user behaviour. Information on user behaviour cannot easily
be compared on a like-for-like basis, so although sharing is useful on
a qualitative basis, quantitative comparisons are likely to be deceptive
(with the possible exception of bounce rates.
6. Browser-based
analyses using external providers (such as Google Analytics) are useful
for snapshot reporting, but for the analysis of long-term trends the collection
and analysis of logs internally is recommended – unless long-term access
to external service providers and the data they hold can be guaranteed.
7. It
is important that those responsible for analysing web metrics have a good
understanding of the role of robot and spider activity since these are
likely to skew statistics on user behaviour. For cross-comparison purposes,
robots.txt files should also be shared.
8. Organisations
in the historic environment sector could do more to compare approaches
to web metrics, and also the many different non-metric approaches such
as web surveys, user observation, and registration information. Shared
surveys should be considered.
9. The
sharing of web metrics between HEIRs should occur more regularly and openly,
as a useful tool by which the sector can monitor overall take-up and use
of resources. The ability to show more clearly how (and how well) historic
environment information resources are used will enable us more easily to
obtain the necessary resources to support and develop them into an uncertain
economic future
10. In
order to facilitate more widespread sharing of web metrics, common standards
should be developed communally by the sector, and a straightforward (and
updateable) guide to measuring and describing use of web resources produced
to enable more organisations to take part in such activities
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