comScore Announces New "Visits" Metric For Measuring User Engagement

March 15, 2007; 04:31 AM
comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for February 2007 and introduced a new suite of metrics based on site "visits." The "visits" metric, defined as the number of times a unique person accesses content within a Web entity with breaks between access of at least 30 minutes, is a way of measuring the frequency with which a person views content, thereby illustrating a key component of user engagement. Included among the new suite of metrics are: total visits, average minutes per visit, average visits per visitor, and average visits per usage day.

"As technologies like AJAX change the Internet landscape, certain measures of engagement, such as page views, are diminishing in significance for many Web properties," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "The introduction of these new metrics based on 'visits' provides an alternative for measuring user engagement that tells us how frequently visitors are actually returning to the site to view more content."

'Visits' an Effective Gauge of Frequency

While each of the "visits" metrics offers a different measure of frequency, the "average visits per visitor" is the most illustrative of return visits per unique individual during the course of a month. Used in concert with the "unique visitors" metric, this measure can help give a more comprehensive view of a site's performance.

In February, Yahoo! Sites ranked as the top Web property by both unique visitors (128.6 million) and average visits per visitor (28.6). Despite the congruence between Yahoo! Sites' rankings, the remaining portions of the top ten rankings show some marked differences between the two metrics:

  -- Facebook.com, the 36th most-visited site with 16.7 million unique
     visitors in February, proved to be one of the most engaging sites,
     ranking second with 23.6 average visits per visitor during the month.

  -- Microsoft Sites, which ranked behind Time Warner Network and Google
     Sites in terms of visitors, eclipsed both competitors by ranking third
     with 21.8 average visits per visitor.

  -- Weatherbug, the 48th most-visited property, was the fifth-most engaging
     property (as measured by average visits per visitor); Comcast
     Corporation, the 33rd most-visited property, was the eighth most-
     engaging property; EA Online, the 60th most-visited property, was the
     ninth most-engaging property; and Earthlink, the 66th most visited
     property, was the tenth most-engaging property.

  Will You Be My Valentine?

Interest in the Valentine's Day holiday made Flowers/Gifts/Greetings the top gaining category in terms of visitors in February (up 28 percent overall). The AmericanGreetings Property led the category with 11.2 million visitors (up 37 percent), followed by Hallmark with 8.6 million visitors (up 54 percent) and FTD.com (the biggest overall gainer) with 3.7 million visitors (up 217 percent). In addition, 1-800-Flowers, the second-biggest gainer overall for the month, jumped 106 percent to 3.5 million visitors; and 123Greetings.com, the fifth-biggest gainer overall, increased 77 percent to 6.2 million visitors.

The Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category also benefited from the "Season of Love," growing 10 percent versus January. Leading the category was RedEnvelope.com with 2.1 million visitors (up 12 percent), Coach.com with 2 million visitors, and Tiffany & Co. with 1.4 million visitors (up 50 percent).

For Your Consideration - the World Wide Web

Visitation to Entertainment-News sites spiked in February due to heavy interest in the annual Academy Awards and the untimely death of model and celebrity Anna Nicole Smith. Leading the category was TMZ with 8.4 million visitors (up 35 percent), People with 5.5 million visitors (up 42 percent) and TVGuide Online with 4.2 million visitors (up 3 percent). Other notable gainers included AccessHollywood.com with 1.3 million visitors (up 133 percent), ET Online with 1 million visitors (up 100 percent), Alloy with 5.2 million visitors (up 77 percent) and BBC News-Entertainment with 1.1 million visitors (up 51 percent).

Taxes and Travel Categories Continue to Grow

Visitation to tax sites continued to increase in February, growing 22 percent overall versus January. Leading the category was IRS.gov with 17.3 million visitors (up 30 percent), TaxACT with 6.4 million visitors (up 56 percent) and H&R Block: Taxes with 4 million visitors (up 1 percent). In addition, traffic to Intuit.com, developer of finance software packages such as TurboTax, Quicken and QuickBooks, increased 16 percent to 12.3 million visitors.

Travel sites also proved popular in February as consumers planned their spring vacations. Traffic to the Ground/Cruise travel category increased 11 percent to 11.3 million visitors overall, driven in part by the 43-percent increase to Carnival Cruise Lines (2.4 million visitors), the 74-percent increase to Princess.com (1.1 million visitors), the 123-percent increase to HollandAmerica (737,000 visitors), and the 230-percent increase to BestPriceCruises.com (388,000 visitors).

Top 50 Properties

In February, Yahoo! Sites remained at the number one position, attracting more than 128 million unique visitors, while Google Sites moved up one spot to number three with nearly 115 million unique visitors. Gorilla Nation enjoyed a nine spot jump to number 15, increasing 23 percent from January. With the onset of tax season, IRS.gov entered the Top 50 Properties ranking in February at number 32, drawing more than 17 million unique visitors.

Top 50 Ad Focus

February saw Advertising.com retain the number one position, again reaching 85 percent of the U.S. online population. Within the top ten, Casale Media Network gained another spot in the ranking, moving up to number 4, and reaching more than 113 million Americans online. Precision Click, Undertone Networks, and CNN each gained three spots, claiming positions 16, 34, and 37, respectively. Finally, Specific Media enjoyed a strong debut in the Ad-Focus ranking at number 12, reaching nearly 91 million Americans online.

comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry- leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore Media Metrix continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings - long used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers - while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/ .