UK's ABCe: Web traffic standards to be reviewed
The web measurement standards for the UK's national newspaper websites are to be reviewed after rival publishers questioned Telegraph.co.uk's dramatic recent traffic growth, adding 6.3 million unique users in two months.
This meteoric unique-user growth culminated in Telegraph.co.uk overtaking guardian.co.uk as the UK's most popular national newspaper website in figures for April released Thursday by the web traffic measurement body ABCe.
Prompted by concerns raised by rival newspaper groups the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards, which advises ABCe on its measurement methods, has Thursday agreed to a review of the tools and standards that publishers use to record web traffic. Jicwebs said the committee is ‘implementing a strategic review of the analytics methodologies for national newspapers'.
The committee acknowledged what it described as ‘minor variances' in analytic tools used by different publishers to measure web traffic, adding that the review will ‘aim to further improve the comparability of the already robust industry standards by addressing these potential variances'.
Publishers use a range of software providers to monitor traffic, including WebTrends, HBX SiteCatalyst and Intellitracker.
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