Suspicious Traffic Numbers

From: Gary Cooley <cooley_at_mtnhome.com>
Date: Mon 30 Jul 2001 13:39:13 -0500

Question Regarding Traffic Report Numbers:

Over the last year we have seen a pattern in our
traffic reports that we cannot explain. After much
discussion, reading, and wondering, we remain as
puzzled about it as we were almost a year ago. We are
hoping that someone here may have an answer, or at
least a trend we could watch.

We operate a small site, a micro market site, which
works very well in the sense that it produces millions
annually in direct gross sales for our 102 advertisers.
We sell a variety of banner ads and other promotions.
Many of our customers have had banner ads with us for
as long as five years because they work. While we are
not rich our company, a small one, does make a profit
selling banner ads and other similar programs.

Our lifeblood is our monthly traffic reports without
which it would not be possible for us to stay in business.
We have three large advertising agencies constantly
blasting away at us, trying very hard to take away our
accounts. They do everything better than we do except
produce results. This is the only reason we have not
lost our accounts. The traffic reports are all that keep
these competitors at bay. Thus our concern over traffic
numbers is obvious.

What we are seeing is that our numbers are very very
consistent. Take any number, unique visits, page views,
time in site, etc., and month after month they are
consistent to the point of varying in some cases by
only a difference of 50.

Percentage wise, the numbers also remain very constant.
While readership is growing, it grows at the same rate
every month. The same sites get the same percentage of
readership, good or bad, month after month. Pick any
aspect of the traffic report, and the numbers vary no
more than from about one to two percent each month.

Such consistency does not seem right. Two years ago
the numbers looked like a Sawtooth Mountain Range image.
Our customers got used to that. Now the numbers look
like a Nebraska corn field - flat!

No customer is complaining because for most business
is up just a hair this year. Other than the consistency,
the numbers are good for what we do, and for what our
advertisers need. We produce good results for them with
only 30,000 unique visits per month. But customers are
asking questions about this consistency factor we can't
answer. Relative to other media, and other sites they
buy advertising in, such consistency is not normal they
claim.

We have little experience in these traffic matters
outside of our own little world. It seems many on this
list have a more worldly level of experience with much
larger sites, and more media and marketing experience.
That is why I have posted here. I've been lurking on
the list for about three years.

Is it normal for traffic reports to show very small
changes from month to month? It is normal for traffic
to stay consistent within only one or two percentage
points month after month, even if the totals rise and
fall? Our totals rise and fall through out the year as
our effort is seasonal tourism, and our customers expect
different numbers between low and high season. But the
amount they rise and fall remains predictable to the
point of boredom, and the amount of spread between
months, again, does not vary more than a few points,
whether rising or falling. It really appears that the
same people visit every month, the same sites, the same
amount of time, in the same path. It appears that each
month the same amount of people drop off as low season
approaches, then the same come back on as high season
approaches.

Again, the numbers in many categories vary by only as
few as 30 to 50 visits, or maybe as much as 500 to 800,
but that is all out of an average of 30,000. We find
this very strange. We have run this site for six years,
and the numbers have, until this year, been all up and
down the radar screen. Traffic reports show that most
of the visitors visit just once, and about 70 percent
click out on the main page after 30 seconds. We don't
need too many readers to make our customers happy!
Since it works we don't try too hard to fix it. But
since so many visit just once, it really makes us
wonder. While it may be possible that the same people
come back once a month and look at one site, we don't
think that makes much sense.

Any ideas? Many thanks in advance.

Gary Cooley
Ozark Mountains Website

(m)ein ich - Plattform der Einmaligkeit



Received on Mon Jul 30 2001 - 13:39:13 CDT