‘Time spent’ presents web analytics ‘problem’
Using “time spent on a website” as a website popularity measure is problematic for advertisers, an industry expert has said.
Robert Niles, writing at the University of Southern California at Annenburg’s Online Journalism Review, says that “page views” has become an inaccurate measure by which to gauge a website’s popularity - as new AJAX-powered websites “can serve up “page” after “page” of fresh content while on the same URL”.
“But ‘time spent on a website’ does not always accurately reflect a site’s worth to advertisers, either,” he continues.
“What good is advertising on a site where readers will spend an hour, if none of those readers care about what you sell? Audience composition is, and always will be, the metric of primary importance to advertisers.”
He goes on to say that website publishers must prove that their site reaches an audience that will be interested in advertisers’ products.
“Once that is established, sites can distinguish themselves from other such sites through metrics such as ‘time spent’,” he explains.
