I find Google Analytics to be a quite amazing tool that can go into very forensic detail if you've got enough time to spend :-)
I think perhaps a more useful question would be why is there so little information about web site traffic and statistics between museums? MCN seems to be a perfect place to trade that sort of information. I'd be willing to export traffic statistics from Google Analytics if others are willing to do the same? Perhaps we can agree on a high level set of stats that are useful for benchmarking against peers that can be properly anonymized so as not to be too specific to any one museum's investments in keyword optimization and Ad campaigns? We make some of this information available on http://dashboard.imamuseum.org. This is certainly less information than what would be useful to this audience, but I'd be willing to open that up more significantly. Any Takers? Rob Robert Stein Chief Information Officer IMA It's My Art Indianapolis Museum of Art Oldfields--Lilly House & Gardens Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park T 317-923-1331, ext. 244 F 317-931-1978 E rstein at imamuseum.org 4000 Michigan Road Indianapolis, IN 46208 -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Jeff Tancil Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:58 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Website benchmarking That seems to beg a question: what stats service is useful? As a fairly dinky Museum, we use the best free service, GoogleAnalytics. How badly do people think that skews? -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Nik Honeysett Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:53 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Website benchmarking Like you say, these sites are ok for trends but do not give anything close to accurate figures for traffic your numbers. -nik >>> Russ Brooks <RBrooks at mus-nature.ca> 3/11/2008 10:43 AM >>> When we noticed a shift in our web statistics we wondered if it was just our site or was it something that was affecting all other museums. We found the two following sites very useful in providing us with an opportunity to compare our performance to that of other museums. http://www.alexa.com/ http://www.compete.com/ These two sites allowed us to see the exact same patterns in traffic affecting nearly all other museums. These sites can also be useful when trying to determine Internet usage trends. Is Facebook still hot? Type in their address and you can see the results. On 3/11/08 1:26 PM, "Leonard Steinbach" <lensteinbach at gmail.com> wrote: > I was wondering whether anyone uses any particular web traffic statistics to > compare the performance of their website to the websites of other museums. > In effect is anyone benchmarking their website against others, or know of > any studies or papers which address this issue? > > Thanks > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l smtp.imamuseum.org made the following annotations---------------------------------------------------------------------NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
