Do armenian Google analytics and Circle.am need conceptual changes?

YEREVAN, February 4. /ARKA/. A popular Armenian rating website, Circle.Am, is currently undergoing conceptual changes, the site reports.

It will not be possible to access the site for some days, starting from February 1, 2014.

Today Armenian advertisers use either Circle or Google Analytics to see their rating, but, in fact, they care rather about “clicks” than about target audience. Some users complain about the way website traffic and headings information is presented in Circle.

An online advertising expert Armen Martirosyan told ARKA Circle.Am is the most common system of website statistics for the Armenian segment of the Internet. 

According to him, the system has no sufficient capacities to provide high-quality analysis and traffic segmentation tools, particularly in terms of traffic sources and audience results, which makes it difficult to compare websites.

Many advertisers and marketing analysts use Circle.am for selecting platforms and placing online ads. “But because the system provides quantitative traffic information only, platforms with low or medium traffic flow lose in competition for ad budgets not having a chance to claim they have a high-quality audience”, Martirosyan said.

According to the expert, another shortcoming of the system is lack of data about traffic structure and audience levels so that advertisers can select the platforms they need.

This means the advertiser makes a random selection out of the top rated platforms, which, in turn, affects advertising efficiency, Martirosyan said.

Producer of Media.am center of media initiatives (Internews before) Gegham Vardanyan told ARKA Circle.am is currently the only system where users and media managers can see the rating.

“Of course, there are complaints about system from time to time, but I can say from my experience statistics provided by Circle-am is compatible with the information from Google Analytics”, Vardanyan said. According to him, negligible deviations may occur.

The expert said the fake traffic raising discontent of users is a problem of not the rating system alone, but of the website in general. 

Vardanyan stressed Circle.am is using the same methodology for showing fake web traffic as Google Analytics. There have been cases with both Circle.am and Google Analytics when websites have been deleted from the rating after the “twist” was revealed, Vardanyan said.

General director of Novosti-Armenia international news agency Galina Davidyan said Circle.am lacks a clear system of source differentiation. 

“For instance, mass media outlets are not identified in the rating, and a wide variety of resources, particularly news aggregators, TV channels, entertainment portals, online media, news agencies, and etc. are found under mass media section. And all it goes without any moderation”, Davidyan said.

Anyway, according to Davidyan, neither advertisers nor agents and users should be blindly guided by the rating information.

Media users should first of all pay attention to the reputation of a resource and see the difference between high-quality content and an “amusement”, Davidyan said adding high rating cannot be an end in itself for a high-quality mass media outlet. Yet, she has not ruled out she may use “above board” schemes for promotion of her resources.

Head of Armenpress news agency Aram Ananyan said he likes conceptual changes in general as companies engaged in information technologies should meet the challenges.

Armenpress is mostly guided by Google Analytics that offers a wider choice of statistics tools enabling the agency deciding on further policies, Ananyan said.

Head of Armenpress stressed Armenian traditional mass media pays more attention to the quality of content than to traffic. In these terms, the quoting rating of the agency could be a good indication of the quality, he said.

“We are not seeking ratings; traffic can be improved through “gutter journalism”, which will lead to reduced quality”, Ananyan said.

Director of PanArmenian.Net Armen Azaryan said they have not changed their policy and still refuse traffic-hunting.

Over the last 6-7 years Circle facilitated creation of a lot of websites giving them a chance to compete with reputable resources, Azaryan said.

“Today the Internet provides both free and paid opportunities for building up a rating, consequently the content receded into the background”, Azaryan said. This, according to him, allowed the newly created websites to move to the fore and top the ratings, leaving high-quality resources behind.

Traffic rating is a simpler and primitive measure for advertisers, he said.

Armenia needs a national rating system, where readers and advertisers will be guided by other indicators as well, Azaryan said.–0--