Leveraging Statistics and Duping Mainstream Media

From large scale stat providers right down to the smallest detail it is easy to take a statistic out of context and draw false conclusions from it. Some examples: Examples of bogus statistics and the value of evaluating stats out of context.

• MySpace has more traffic than Yahoo! - over-represents automated spam and does not account for the targeting and value of some of Yahoo!'s search traffic and vertical content. In addition the story about this conveniently separated the Yahoo! traffic into multiple smaller streams, and typically counts pageviews when many of Yahoo!'s products use AJAx.
• Yahoo! has 25% of the search market - over-represents Yahoo! by counting searches on vertical properties and internal searches. Looking at search marketshare by referral data to large websites - does not take into account algorithmic bias of some engines toward large or small websites.
• Alexa data for my site - because it is an internet marketing blog, it is heavily overrepresented.
• Lower conversion rate for leads after redesign - I redesigned a friend's site and made it easier for people to contact them or get price estimates. Originally their site was unattractive and it was hard to contact them or get a quote. After making it easier to do those the end conversion rate of the people who did those action items was slightly lower due to it being so much easier to do them.
• Higher AdSense earnings per click or clickthrough rate on a finance site on Christmas eve - the people searching may be more desperate, and thus more willing to click on anything, and they may also search a disproportionately higher rate for higher value terms.
• Seasonal bias - I have a seasonal site which I fixed broken links right around when it was going out of season. It did not make more, but fell less hard than it would have. When the seasons changed again the earnings shot through the roof.
Why do Bogus Stats Matter? As a marketer it is important to realize how statistics can lie for two main reasons.

1. so you are measuring the right stuff 2. so you can present market data in a way that biases your story such that it is remarkable and easy to spread

1.) After Comments Furl Bookmark murdok: Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, an ebook offering the latest search engine optimization tips and strategies. From Threadwatch community.