Web analytics, web metrics, and how to use them to track and improve conversions

Was reading comScore Announces Decline of Google’s Global Share; Then Hides in a Hole  a few days ago but was so busy at SES NY that I didn't really get a chance to write about it.

"...After the fallout from comScore’s recent claims about Google’s paid search traffic–which led to a Wall Street panic–the company’s recent report reeks of insecurity.

The company has released numbers that suggest Google’s global market share slipped from 63/1% to 62.8%, but refuses to reveal the name of the analyst who did the research.

The data from comScore showed Google’s dominance of the worldwide market for Web search dipping to 62.8 percent in February from 63.1 percent the month before, according to an analyst, who declined to be named."

I'm not sure how much I'd go to the bank with ComScore's numbers but I know they are looked at by many companies as a way to, more or less, determine Brand  Visibility and estimate traffic to sites ComScore tracks - including competitors.

Noted that "research" was done by ComScore or using ComScore's MyMetrix to come up with the slight Google decline - but not much information provided on how the data was arrived at.  I would prefer that information be provided. 

So I wrote about how you could use ComScore MyMetrix to get the Search Engine Traffic (estimated, of course, using Panel Data) but might still get better results than HitWise - because you'll get actual numbers - in a blog post over at The Analytics Guru -

Determining Search Engine Traffic using ComScore MyMetrix

Here's the thing, you'd have to have access to MyMetrix and then pull the Source/Loss report for each month (over the last year) into a directory where you could work on it (or, stick it into a database - they'll probably be better).

You'd get the definitions for Google Search, Yahoo Search and MSN/Live Search - as those account for 95% of all Search Traffic and then pull out Google/Yahoo/MSN traffic for any site you want that ComScore tracks.

Actually, I was able to select each site I was interested in comparing Search Engine Traffic and just drill down to get Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Search Traffic - easy, actually.