And now the browser…
Marketing Vox is already reporting some early adoption rates of Chrome, Google’s new browser. They quickly, and rightly, point out the unique visitor count issues that will arise from the Incognito mode.
The question is how many people will want to use it. Whenever I survey people, I encounter more and more of them who prefer not to delete cookies, due to very practical reasons such as not having to go through a cumbersome re-logging process (online banking comes to mind).
Anyway, apart from wondering why Google would do it since they have a vested interest in dropping their cookies on every live connected computer, this will contribute to even more skewed visitor numbers.
In fact, that metric might as well just become directional information, and in no way accurate of how many people come to your site (hint: in fact, it’s always been the case).
I think this is another good reason for stopping to care about the visitor numbers. People on your site are prospects, clients, users, whatever, and you should rather find ways to encourage “visitors” to quickly let you know what hat they wear when on your site.
Anyone want to bet by which date Chrome will account for 20% of visits?
Another good point! Seems like we told people to stop using hits for many years. Then we said stop talking about page views and visits. Looks like the visitors metrics is next on the chopping block.
But publishers care deeply about the number. It will take a while to shift to a new mindset. Say, subscribers …
Hi Akin,
Yes, absolutely, I do think that traffic metrics are of very little value. What are anonymous visitors to me? Except, still, for publishers, where those numbers give them at least some level of possible ad sales. But even there, I don’t think visitors still can qualify as a KPI. Percentage of sold inventory, yes.
I am not saying that traffic numbers have absolutely no interest. Of course, if I get 0 visit on my site for a month, that figure will be tell a LOT! But apart from that, variations in visits and visitors are just that: variations in opportunities.
Web Analysis is all about exploiting those opportunities…
Thanks for your comment!