Is the page view dead?

According to Nielsen Netratings, the page view is an ex-measurement. It has shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.

The firm will no longer rank websites based on page views, because it says they can underestimate how much someone is using a website when video or other interactive features are involved.

Not that the page view was ever a perfect metric. It might reveal how many pages are being downloaded, but a poorly designed site can force users to wade through pages they don’t want. As their teeth gnash and fists clench, they’re unlikely to be receptive to the ads on the site.

Today’s rich web is nevertheless forcing the industry to rethink how it measures user experience. Google Maps, Flickr slideshows and Digg votes are updated at a click without the whole page refreshing. A page view is typically thought of as a complete screen reload, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Indeed, the definition approved by advertising audit body ABCE is surprisingly malleable: “a file, or combination of files, sent to a valid user as a result of that user’s request being received by the server.” Sites must filter out non-requested files, which would include advert scrollers or automatic Flash movies. But there’s no reason why new content presented to the user on request could not be interpreted as a page view, even if it’s just a chunk of map or a new photo. Such an interpretation might raise eyebrows among advertisers, though.

Advertisers want to know how often their ads will be shown, and how engaged the audience is on the host website. A loyal audience that’s interested in the content at a site is worth much more than a stream of one-off visitors who pump up the page views, but abandon the site on loading. How frequently users return, how much they spend, and how many times they visit before committing to their first order or content submission might be good indicators of engagement. Qualitative measures could be used alongside raw numbers to sell advertising, such as how easily the user found what they wanted on the site and how satisfied they were with the experience..

We still hear occasional mentions of ‘hits’, a meaningless measurement that counted every script and picture, so things won’t change soon. But in the next five years or so, the industry will need to establish metrics that reflect the value their audience brings to advertisers and will need to educate advertisers on what they mean. The challenge will be to create standards that enable metrics to be measured between different sites.

Not all sites use rich media, of course, and the simpler you can make the metric, the easier it will be to sell off the back of it. Perhaps it’s too soon to bury the old page view: it might be stunned, but it’s some way off pushing up the daisies.