Comments on: Only 24% of the Most Popular Websites in Ireland are Irish

By: Top Websites in Ireland – December 2009 | Barry Hand

Top Websites in Ireland – December 2009 | Barry Hand — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:14:20 +0000

[...] me to delve a little closer into what the Ad Planner data do. For a more in robust method, I use a mixture of tools but still think that without a Hitwise equivalent, Google is the best source for figures – [...]

By: Mistletoe and Wine – 2009 Review « Brendan Hughes, talking about the Internet in business and society in Ireland

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:34:27 +0000

[...] Late in the month we had a bit of banter about some stats that I tried to pull together on the top Irish-owned website properties. One of the most fascinating discoveries for me was the meteoric growth in popularity of the [...]

By: Donagh

Donagh — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:24:47 +0000

I like Barry’s approach also. You’ve just got to have common sense and if the stats don’t add up they likely aren’t accurate.

By: Can Google Ad Planner make your website more money? - Barry Hand: Online Marketing in Ireland

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:43:34 +0000

[...] post by Brendan Hughes had me thinking a little more in depth on Google AdPlanner (you can read my comments there and also [...]

By: Brendan

Brendan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:14:31 +0000

Barry, thanks for that insight. I’ve done the same with Alexa, mapping the data it provides on my websites with what I actually know, and then map to other sites I’m trying to make a guesstimate on. Interesting to see that others are doing the same, but obviously using multiple sources which gives greater reliability.

Michele, granted that Alexa is not accurate, but just taking the Daft.ie example I mention above I’m not sure I’d rely exclusively on Google either. I think Barry’s approach above makes a lot of sense.

By: Michele

Michele — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:42:16 +0000

Brendan

That a Polish site might make it into the top 100 is possible, so I’d suspect that the Google stats are lot more accurate and reflect reality, or something pretty close to it

Alexa’s stats are totally unreliable.

Michele

By: Barry Hand

Barry Hand — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:40:05 +0000

Brendan, For something like visitor traffic I use Comscore, Ad Planner, Insights, Compete, Alexa any my own analytics and apply weights based on their sample size & methodology.

I also use my own data for tolerance rates on each based on site centric data.

For instance Comscore produce data based on around 2 million users (1 million of which are US), and I’m doubtful any significant amount are Irish. Their UV data is way off my actuals but that’s OK as I can apply a low weighting and assume that if they’re 50% out with me, they’re also 50% out with competitors.

For some websites on Ad Planner you can see where they’ve shared their Google Analytic data to get actual figures and not estimates (have a search for wiffy.ie)

By: Brendan

Brendan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:45:38 +0000

Hi Michele

That polish website that Alexa has at 27, Google Ad Planner has at 83. Certainly not in the same position but still in the top 100. Is it not inconceivable, given the size of the Polish community in Ireland, the majority of whom are between the ages of 20 and 34 (in 2006 at least according to CSO) that a Polish social networking site would rank highly?

What resource would you use Michele for this type of information?

By: Michele

Michele — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:10:13 +0000

So you honestly think that a Polish website is the 20th most popular site in Ireland?

By: Brendan

Brendan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:43:51 +0000

I think Barry’s approach of using a mix of sources and applying weightings sounds reasonable. I would be interested in understanding how the weightings would be applied?

In the absence of accurate information I still think that Alexa offers useful comparison and trend information. There is certainly nothing unreasonable in what Alexa brings back that would cause me to run a mile from it. I also tend to use it for cross site comparisons in a sector. I certainly take the point however that it is open to abuse and reflects a small subset of Irish Internet consumers.

The Google Ad Planner looks like a decent resource but with its own limitations. To take an example; Daft.ie were recently quoted as saying that they have 1.4 million unique visitors per month (I’ve no reason to doubt them). Google Ad Planner says the number is almost half of that at 750k.

Another interesting observation about Ad Planner is that it doesn’t include Google in the reports, but gives this message when you try to do a search: “Ad Planner could not locate sufficient data to display for google.ie” – hilarious!!

What other resources are people using – ComScore, JNIR…??