Traffic to Compete, the Web metrics company, is not being reported by Nielsen Online due to a dip in traffic to 370,000 unique visitors in May. While Compete is being tracked by Nielsen, traffic for May put it below a threshold for accurate reporting, a Nielsen Online spokesperson told us.
Website traffic metrics, meaning the solutions and services used to monitor and
count traffic, are not perfect. There are some big
players who charge substantial fees to publishers and advertisers for fairly reliable numbers,
these are Nielsen Online and comScore.
Then there are consumer-friendly
services which offer a combination of free and subscription — Compete
and Alexa, the Amazon unit, are the best known.
Alexa had 1.16 million uniques in May, Nielsen Online tells Beet.TV
We think Compete is pretty good – and the paid service is valuable. Maybe the lower traffic reflects its evolution as a B2B tool? We’re not sure.
The sector is becoming more crowded. In June, Google introduced its consumer-friendly webmetrics utility, Google Trends for Websites. It’s quite valuable, although it’s early on, and a number of sites, including this purple one, are not yet ranked.
Earlier this month, I spoke with CNET Senior Editor Dan Ackerman who spells out the challenges in getting accurate Web metrics.
— Andy Plesser
Disclosure: CNET Networks is client of Plesser Holland public relations
