Too often, marketing executives rely only on the volume of Web site "hits," and the number of "pages served," and Webmasters produce voluminous reports detailing other statistics such as:

• Average visit duration
• Number of users
• Top 25 requests
• Visits by hour
• Visits by day
• Top 25 access providers
• Top 25 referrals
• User domains

We believe that while these metrics are important in assessing your Website's popularity, they do little to measure the effectiveness of your online brand strategy. Instead, you must realize that on the Web, more so than in the "real" world, users have many other "destinations" to choose from. It is therefore essential that you also measure your customers' satisfaction with your site, and quantify the value associated with specific brand-building attributes. Ultimately, this will translate into more meaningful analyses of your return on investment.

Through continuous surveys, focus groups and beta-testing, we recommend that you develop and measure the "interactivity metrics" that must be the foundation of your branding program on the Web. These interactivity measures would include:

• Primary navigation patterns through the Web site.
• Cross-site navigation patterns.
• Demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics of visitors to your Web site, and to specific pages within the site.
• Cognitive and attitudinal measures, including the sense of "flow."
• Individual user loyalty and repeat visits.