When the Telegraph recently posted a sizable online traffic surge for the month of March, the paper attributed the success to better new stories and successful multimedia strategy.

That may be part of the explanation, but the Telegraph figures are also an example of the imprecise nature of online traffic measurement. According to MediaGuardian, audit certificates published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) reveal that the site switched its internal measurement tool between February and March this year, replacing HBX SiteCatalyst with WebTrends 7.

A source said that the site had been under-reporting its figures for sometime because certain page views were not being recorded. Richard Foan, the ABCe managing director, did not directly comment on the Telegraph's audit but confirmed that a publisher could be under-reporting its traffic if it had not tagged all the pages on its site.

Edward Roussel, the digital editor for the Telegraph Media Group, maintained however that the different measurement system had little effect on traffic figures because "both systems use the same methodology."

"The old measurement system missed some users, as did the new system. But the new system still showed rapid growth in user numbers," Roussel said. "There was leakage on both systems because we weren't able to tag everything with WebTrends during March."

Source: MediaGuardian