Measuring the Success of Your Website: A Customer‐centric Approach to Website Management

Citation

Smith, A.G. (2002), "Measuring the Success of Your Website: A Customer‐centric Approach to Website Management", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 427-428. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.6.427.5

Information professionals are increasingly finding themselves involved with Web sites. But how do we know if a Web site is achieving its objectives? Measuring the Success of Your Website takes a customer‐oriented approach to this problem. While it is primarily concerned with commercial, e‐commerce sites, there is much of value here for non‐profit Web sites, including library Web sites.

Inan argues that Web metrics are the key to the success of e‐commerce sites. However, metrics must move beyond the basic statistics of hits, page‐views, etc. and determine how well a site serves its customers. Statistics can be misleading – a page with a high traffic volume may be a successful page; alternatively it may be on a circular navigation path which is being visited frequently by “lost” customers. In discussing these issues, Inan develops some fascinating jargon: you need to ask “how sticky is your Web site?”, consider whether your site loses customers through “leakage” or “abandonment”, and whether your site has “sweet spots” or “seducible points”. While the book is published in Australia, the material is applicable in any developed society. There is useful background information on research into Web user behaviour.

Inan’s model of Web metrics is based on a framework of the various stages of a customer’s involvement with a Web site: reaching, acquiring, converting, and retaining. He reminds us that customers do not use the Web site in isolation, and may be moving between online and physical channels – a customer may use the Web site to gather information about a product, but complete the purchase at a physical shop.

Particularly valuable is Chapter 7, which summarises the available analytical techniques – customer analysis, traffic measurement, “where‐from” analysis, etc. – and identifies what information they produce, and how they might be used. Terminology for Web metrics is a thorny area – what do we mean by “user”, “session” or “view”? Inan suggests definitions that help to clarify discussions that use these terms.

Chapter 9 includes a useful non‐technical summary of the topics of cookies, log files, etc. and identifies their uses and limitations. Some might argue with the bald statement that there are “no security issues with cookies”, but generally this section is reliable and well informed, and a later section does cover privacy issues and policy in some detail. Those who are interested in the future of the information professions will find Chapter 11 interesting: Inan identifies a new role of “Web analyst”, and readers might like to match the listed attributes to their own skill sets and knowledge.

There is an associated Web site at <http://www.hurolinan.com/>, which includes a summary of the book, additional resources and an online newsletter. The book has a useful index. Measuring the Success of Your Website is valuable reading for anyone who has responsibility for a Web site, whether it is an e‐commerce site or not.