Travelwritten

ABOVE: The "Audience (Traffic and Demographics)" page at Europe for Visitors gives an overview of the readers who use our site to plan trips.

by Durant Imboden, Europe for Visitors

Web metrics (a.k.a. analytics) are important for a couple of reasons:

• Traffic statistics help you see how you're doing, in terms of growth and compared to other sites in your niche.

• Traffic and demographic data are valuable to potential advertisers, and to PR people who may want to invite you on press trips.

In this section of Travelwritten.com, I'll discuss the leading types or brands of Web metrics, with caveats about their scope and accuracy. 

When comparing sites, it's important to avoid apples-and-oranges comparisons. Monster-portal.com or Content-farm.com might have 10 million unique visitors per month, but your 25,000-visitors-per-month "Tour the Outback like an Aborigine" site could easily have a bigger and more valuable audience in the "Australian adventure travel" niche.

Articles in this section:

• Measuring traffic and demographics (introduction)
• Google Analytics
• Logfile analysis
• Quantcast
• Alexa
• Compete.com
• ComScore Media Metrix, Nielsen NetRatings, Hitwise

Next article: "Google Analytics"