Time spent on a Web site is becoming as important as page views and some would argue time spent is a more accurate measurement of user engagement.
Engagement More Important Than Page Views
Nielsen//NetRatings has released research that examines the top Web sites in The UK by page view, visits and time spent at each site.
Google was the leader for most Web pages viewed in the UK, with 3.8 billion, followed by eBay (3.7 billion) and Yahoo (2 billion).
Facebook had the most pages viewed per UK visitor with 466, trailed by Bebo at 436 and eBay with 256.
Alex Burnmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings said, ” the page view has been the traditional measure for advertisers to compare which websites provide the most opportunities to display their ads to consumers. The large portals and social networking sites tend to dominate this way of looking at engagement.”
“However, as the technology that publishers use to deliver content to the user moves away from static, reloaded pages to be more streamlined content-e.g. online videos- the page views is becoming a less relevant gauge of where might be the best place to advertise online.”
“Consequently advertisers will have to look at other metrics, such as time spent or visits, to see where their online ad pound might be best spent.”
Mr. Burnmaster points out that the biggest and most popular sites lead in terms of visits but that the metric does not reveal the amount of time spent on the site. He believes time spent per visitor is the best measurement of engagement.
Britons spent the most time on eBay in February of 07, logging 28 million hours on the site while RuneScape had the most engaging site by average time spent per visitor (6 hours 32 minutes).
“Time covers all web environments and provides an accurate trend in a pre- and post- Web 2.0 world with the increasing use of new Internet technologies, such as AJAX programming, and the changing way that people consume content.”
“Advertisers will, however, need to be aware of the whole picture painted by the different metrics when looking to assess user engagement with a site – and the consequent ad opportunity”, Mr. Burnmaster added.
