To encourage the use of Web site audits, ABC Interactive has launched its free “Site Bytes” service.
Site Bytes provides marketers with a cursory glance of Web site’s page impressions, ad impressions and unique visitors to help them make ad buy decisions. The information will be updated on a quarterly basis.
This abbreviated version of ABC’s Web site audit reports should be a time saver for users. “Some people don’t have time to sift through 30 to 40 pages of audit reports. It takes away from the time can spend on their planning. So we’ve summarized basic, top-line information,” said Evelyn Hepner, vice president of sales and marketing for ABC Interactive, Schaumburg, IL. “Then they can get more information of half-dozen or dozen sites they are interested in.”
There are currently listings for the page impressions for 132 sites including Salon, Epicurios and BigWords, but much of the information is incomplete. ABC currently audits more than 2,000 companies and is encouraging them to participate with this service. As more companies cooperate, both the information and lists are expected to increase.
ABC is providing this service to stimulate the use of audits. “Web sites should be audited it provides standardized information data makes easier for planning process to occur,” said Hepner. “We’ve removed the barriers for usage. We’re allowing them to have access to the data to encourage growth of this industry.”
And of course, the service should also increase interest in its company. “It heightens the awareness of our service by putting the information in the agencies and advertiser’s hands,” said Hepner.
There may be a fee to use the service in future, but there are no plans to charge for the audits in the next calendar year.
An offshoot of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, ABC Interactive provides independent third-party audits of Web sites, e-mail delivery systems, search engines, chat rooms and Internet broadcasts.
