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  • “Hits” Are Successful Pop Songs – Not A Web Success Measurement Monday, September 15, 2008 by: Mel Carson - MSFT 2 Comments

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    Summer has arrived here in London (!) so yesterday  I took myself up to Sheen Common to watch some village cricket in the blazing sunshine.

    Accompanied by an assortment of Sunday newspapers, I couldn’t help but spot the word “hits” being spattered around various articles as a supposed indication of a website’s success.

    I’m not sure where the term came from (maybe someone can enlighten me) but I do know that it is somewhat passé and should be expunged from our vocabularies when talking about web metrics.

    A website’s success is determined by so many different variables it is difficult to sum up in one word or phrase.

    We’ve talked on this blog before about Bounce Rate, Visitor Loyalty and Actionable KPIs.

    Really it’s a combination of these insights that help paint a true picture of how well a website should be regarded.

    But if this is getting too complicated for a feature story in a glossy magazine, we should at least move away from the word “hits!”

    Maybe talk in terms of visitors or visits or even page views?

    Whatever we do, using the correct web analytics vernacular is paramount in helping to educate and evangelise just how important and effective web success measurement is.

    Check back soon where we’ll be defining adCenter Analytics metrics in detail.

2 Comments RSS

  • Avinash Kaushik said:

    I have found that educating folks (including the delightful people at The Sun etc : )) about the acronym for Hits greatly reduces their propensity to use it in the future.

    HITS: How Idiots Track Success.

    Sorry, seems a bit rude. But necessary.

    -Avinash.

    posted at 1:30 PM, 09/15/2008
  • Ian Thomas - MSFT said:

    Unfortunately, I fear that the term "Hits" (in the popular press) is here to stay, simply because it is short. I bet if you asked a typical newspaper reader what a hit was, they wouldn't be able to tell you - so switching to page views or page impressions would bring no benefit, except to take up mroe space (the sub-ed's worst nightmare). So hits it is.

    Ian

    posted at 1:47 PM, 09/15/2008

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