Current methods of evaluating website success tend to be shallow, say the experts at Forrester Research, and provide no real basis for guiding internet strategy.

The most common means of judging performance is to count the number of "hits", that is, the number of online requests for files, which is generally taken to mean a site is being used.

But, comments Forrrester's Eric Schmitt "Using hits and page views to judge a site's success is like evaluating a musical performance by its volume."

What is needed instead is a method for tracking the "visitor experience", says Schmitt. Once visitors are uniquely identified, operators then need to know how each interacts with the site - do they collect information, use the e-mail function, join in discussions, buy anything?

More "web intelligence", says Forrester, would enable sites to be tailored to real visitor interests, which means more effective customer servicing, greater return on internet investment and so on.

Currently, Forrester notes, solutions lag behind the requirement, with no one supplier able to provide the comprehensive intelligence tools operators need. Most of the firms Forrester questioned do use some sort of measurement package, but most expressed dissatisfaction with effectiveness.

Elliott Chase