ANTenna Blog -- Internet/Web

Is your company's Web site doing its job? Are you sure? What with the rise of Rich Internet Applications, AJAX, and other Web 2.0 technologies, how can you tell?

This concern is not exactly brand new. In fact, I raised the alarm way back in 2005 in a widely linked-to TechWeb Spin column.

But I'm raising it again now because Info-Tech Research Group's McLean report recently proffered some good suggestions on how to deal with the changes.

(Yes, I know I just published another blog referencing the McLean Report. Hey, it was a good issue...)

Understand the need for Web 2.0 functionality. You need to know what it supposed to do in order to measure how well it's working.

Drop the bean counter. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are not easily translated nto numbers.

Not all Web 2.0 is created equal. You need to adapt your measurement criteria to the channel:

RSS: measure the number of clicks from the feeds

Blogs: look at comments and trackbacks

Wikis: which page is getting the most edits -- or the most vandalism?

Social networks: use the network's tool sets to monitor campaigns and ads

Podcasts: track how subscribers sign up, and try services such as Podtrac or Podcasting Tools to track usage

Video Sharing/Blogging: YouTube and other video sharing sites make it easy to track viewership

Keeping up with Web 2.0 metrics takes a bit more work than just tracking page views. But it will give you a much deeper understanding of your site's relationship with its audience.