Comments on: More Trouble for Unique Visitors http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/ Moving from a Low Accountability to a High Accountability Business Model Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:53:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Web Analytics Demystified » Blog Archive » Playing catch up again after a family outing to SeaWorld! http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-222 Web Analytics Demystified » Blog Archive » Playing catch up again after a family outing to SeaWorld! Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:06:17 +0000 http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-222 [...] Jim Novo, a true web analytics guru, picked up on my recent rant about the death of page views … NOT! and did a little analysis of his McAfee anti-virus application and how the application treats tracking cookies.  The thing I love the most about Jim is how practical his guidance is, especially regarding sessions as a replacement for unique visitors and page views.  Jim closes his post with this: “My advice to you is to start shadow tracking now using Visits or Sessions as the base in your most important metrics, the ones you are on the hook for.  You don’t have to show them to anybody, just keep track of them in Excel or something and note the trends.  Then when you start seeing your Unique Visitor based metrics collapsing on you, you can whip out the Visit / Session based metrics and say, “See!  See!  It’s really not happening!  We’re doing much better than you think!” [...] [...] Jim Novo, a true web analytics guru, picked up on my recent rant about the death of page views … NOT! and did a little analysis of his McAfee anti-virus application and how the application treats tracking cookies.  The thing I love the most about Jim is how practical his guidance is, especially regarding sessions as a replacement for unique visitors and page views.  Jim closes his post with this: “My advice to you is to start shadow tracking now using Visits or Sessions as the base in your most important metrics, the ones you are on the hook for.  You don’t have to show them to anybody, just keep track of them in Excel or something and note the trends.  Then when you start seeing your Unique Visitor based metrics collapsing on you, you can whip out the Visit / Session based metrics and say, “See!  See!  It’s really not happening!  We’re doing much better than you think!” [...]

]]> By: Mary Kay Lofurno http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-134 Mary Kay Lofurno Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:48:06 +0000 http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-134 Hi, I don't like McAffee either. I have it work because it is what the company uses-at home I have sophos. I don't really care about unique visitors, the major metric that matters for us on the web site is leads (a potential prospect that raises their hand by filling out one of our registration forms). I look at entry pages, exit pages, paths, where users are coming from and I study our logs for any new keyword phrases that could crop up, but not much more after that. Of course, we measure landing pages, test them, etc. to improve our form conversion rates but certainly not unique visitors. Hi,

I don’t like McAffee either. I have it work because it is what the company uses-at home I have sophos.

I don’t really care about unique visitors, the major metric that matters for us on the web site is leads (a potential prospect that raises their hand by filling out one of our registration forms). I look at entry pages, exit pages, paths, where users are coming from and I study our logs for any new keyword phrases that could crop up, but not much more after that. Of course, we measure landing pages, test them, etc. to improve our form conversion rates but certainly not unique visitors.

]]> By: Jim Novo http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-131 Jim Novo Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:38:42 +0000 http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-131 Thanks for the comments! Stephanie, I get the difference between 1st and 3rd party cookies as it applies to the pure site analytics world but there are lots of other cookie problems that make Unique Visitors an inaccurate base for KPI's.  What I really wonder about is all these highly touted studies in the display ad world like "view through" and ideas like Frequency caps. How can any of that be real or working properly if all these cookies are being demolished? The idea that mere exposure to a display ad leads to site visits even if there are no clicks can't really be measured, can it? Ron, you're just being Cranky, I know...but I actually dumped McAfee for Zone Alarm Anti-Virus shortly after this screwed up experience. McAfee has just pissed me off too many times with poor execution and user experience. When I say I want to manage the update process, I want to manage it - all of it. Those companies in commodity businesses who fail to understand it's about the service / process not the product are headed for some hurt. Thanks for the comments! Stephanie, I get the difference between 1st and 3rd party cookies as it applies to the pure site analytics world but there are lots of other cookie problems that make Unique Visitors an inaccurate base for KPI’s.  What I really wonder about is all these highly touted studies in the display ad world like “view through” and ideas like Frequency caps. How can any of that be real or working properly if all these cookies are being demolished? The idea that mere exposure to a display ad leads to site visits even if there are no clicks can’t really be measured, can it?

Ron, you’re just being Cranky, I know…but I actually dumped McAfee for Zone Alarm Anti-Virus shortly after this screwed up experience. McAfee has just pissed me off too many times with poor execution and user experience. When I say I want to manage the update process, I want to manage it - all of it. Those companies in commodity businesses who fail to understand it’s about the service / process not the product are headed for some hurt.

]]> By: Ron Shevlin http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-130 Ron Shevlin Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:49:29 +0000 http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-130 I'm not buying it that you were "minding your own business" I’m not buying it that you were “minding your own business”

]]> By: S.Hamel http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-126 S.Hamel Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:34:03 +0000 http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/02/19/unique-visitors/#comment-126 I think there is one fundamental concept most people are failing to understand: tools like McAfee look for 3rd party cookies served by very specific ad networks or, in our case, web analytics solutions. This leads to a simple fact: don't use 3rd party cookies when you implement web analytics, use 1st party cookie at all cost! This is easy to implement and will significantly lower the noise at the base level. But still, the fact remains that FUD puts all kind of cookies in the same basket, even those that are use for very useful and specific purposes. In the end, the arguments against unique visitors tracking are piling up... visits, pages and now, events, are more interesting than ever! I think there is one fundamental concept most people are failing to understand: tools like McAfee look for 3rd party cookies served by very specific ad networks or, in our case, web analytics solutions. This leads to a simple fact: don’t use 3rd party cookies when you implement web analytics, use 1st party cookie at all cost! This is easy to implement and will significantly lower the noise at the base level.

But still, the fact remains that FUD puts all kind of cookies in the same basket, even those that are use for very useful and specific purposes.

In the end, the arguments against unique visitors tracking are piling up… visits, pages and now, events, are more interesting than ever!

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