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JIM MESKAUSKAS ASKED:
>Is there a way to find out if the people who visit a site
>click on the Netscape bookmark to get there? I know the
>clicked-to site can track their users' referral URLs, but is
>there any way to know if it comes from the bookmark?
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim, this a great question. If only there were a magic
answer to help us determine how many people bookmark our
sites. The truth is there isn't one simple answer or
solution that will get you find this out.
There are however, some indicators that will help you get a
rough idea of who is bookmarking your site. The answers are
hidden in your web site log files. We use Webtrends to
analyze our logs.
The following model is the only way that I know that will
give you an idea of how many individuals are bookmarking
your site.
1. Create an intro page with a 'meta-pull' feature. This can
be a page that features your brand, corporate message,
slogan, etc., it really doesn't matter. The idea is that
only people that type in 'www.yourfirm.com' will see this
first screen, then they will be automatically pulled into
your actual entry page. For the sake of this example we will
call your entry page 'www.yourfirm.com/front.htm.
MODEL: Point of entry (www.yourfirm.com/index) --->
(Meta-Pull)--->Frontpage (www.yourfirm.com/front.htm)
2. Use your log analyzer to find out how this page
(www.yourfirm.com/front.htm) ranks under the 'Top paths
though site' category. Most reputable log analyzers have
this feature. What you will see is that in most cases
www.yourfirm.com/index is the most popular page that is
accessed first (this is the page with the meta-pull feature
on it). What your want to find out is how many unique
visitors accessed www.yourfirm.com/front.htm as their first
point of entry. This will give you an indication of how many
people visited your site through a bookmark. Since that is
the only way they could have accessed it as the entry point,
everyone else would have entered via the /index.htm page.
3. If your log analyzer has a 'cached hits' feature this can
be an effective indicator of how many repeat visitors you
have. For example if in a particular month 25% your hits
where classified as cached then this may be an indicator
that 1 out of 4 visitors are repeat visitors. However, be
careful in this assumption, sometimes these cached hits may
represent people within your organization who have their
page set as their home page. To solve this, make sure it is
internal policy to have a mirrored version of your site on
your local network that is to be used specifically for this
purpose.
Use this cached % as a ratio against the number of people
who have your page bookmarked vs. set as a homepage. For
example if 2000 unique visitors came in directly through
your entry page (www.yourfirm.com/front.htm) and you have a
cached % of 25. Then you can estimate that 500 visitors have
your page set as their home page and the difference (1500)
have your site bookmarked.
Rudimentary, but it makes sense.
As a final (and more simple option) create a mini survey off
your front page with two radio buttons asking the question:
"Have you bookmarked our site?" Yes/No. This will at least
give you an idea of how many people bookmark your site.
Hope this was helpful. Good luck.
Regards,
Adrian Salamunovic
Business Manager
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Received on Thu Mar 11 1999 - 14:05:41 CST
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