“Time Spent” Replaces “Page View” as Metric of Choice
Apr 19th, 2007 by Dan Blank
The Wall Street Journal reports on the shift from page view metrics to time spent metrics:
“Page views have been a major barometer of a Web site’s popularity and help set advertising rates, but the measure is becoming less relevant. Online publishers and advertisers say page views don’t capture consumer loyalty to a site or reflect the increasing popularity of online video and new technology that automatically refreshes Web sites, thereby depressing page views.”
“Nielsen/NetRatings, in June will release what it calls “time-spent” data and stop issuing its rankings by page views. The New York company’s rival, comScore Inc. said last month that it is emphasizing a measurement called “visits,” which takes into account the time people return to surf a Web site in a month.”
Terry Heaton has more details, for those of you without a Wall Street Journal account.