Credibly Counting Clicks

The IAB's Nomenclature Project is proposing a more honest way to count website traffic. According to News.com, the current methods used by Nielsen/NetRatings allow publishers to count traffic hosted on other websites that only mention the site.

Similarly, counting traffic should also prevent include clicks generated by RSS feed readers, bots and spiders. Also, "page views," from emailed newsletters should be in a separate category. To make it easier to count traffic from bots, a public list should be created to make it easier for traffic analysis software to get it right (thanks Jas!).

This will be a bitter pill for publishers, but help the industry in the long run by raising click-through rates and reaffirming how online advertising is more measurable than broadcast media.