Content Sites

Websites that offer free content need to be concerned with basicmetrics such as page views and unique visitors (those who visit a sitemore than once during a specific period of time) in order to satisfyadvertisers. Otherwise, metrics aren't as straightforward as they canbe for sites that measure success in revenue from sales. However,these sites--which run the gamut from media sites to governmentinformation portals--need to gauge how customers are faring. "We spenda lot of time and effort making sure that our online readership ishighly satisfied," says Michael Smith, CTO of Forbes.com in New YorkCity.

Here are some ways they can do it.

Loyalty index: PennWell, a Tulsa, Okla., company that publishes morethan 40 business-to-business magazines, tracks the number of visitorsand unique visitors to its site, as well as page views--all of whichare important to its advertisers. The company also looks at the topdomains and vendors that are visiting the site in order to show thatit is attracting the right audience for advertisers.

PennWell is able to track clickstream behavior and determine who isvisiting through its use of WebSideStory, a San Diego-based ASP. MarkHeimberg, who oversees 23 of PennWell's websites as director oftechnical marketing, says he can track a "loyalty index" bydetermining how many times a visitor comes to the site each week,month and year.