There are several kinds of webmaster tools data, and research services that measure website traffic.
A colleague of some competing trade media bloggers and publishers raised the question of traffic and site data That source, an ally of several competitors, suggested that the Daily Business News publish a report.
This report is a response to that challenge.
Quoting a phrase verbatim from a much longer emailed message, “What you [MHProNews] probably don’t realize is, others – not me – track and report their findings to interested parties in the industry.” Rephrasing, some are talking trash, claiming our traffic is lower then claimed, and there’s is higher. What that source politely told MHProNews is that we should “put up” more facts about our traffic claims.
That sparked a discussion that lead to the following report, which will begin with a broad look at how manufactured housing stacks up with mainstream housing. Then, we will turn to a look at some specific manufactured home (MH) industry sites, including – but not limited to – MH trade media sites.
The topic is actually an important one for the manufactured housing industry’s understanding of itself, with respect to the broader housing market.
One more quick preface. Be it Google, Alexa, Webalizer, or whomever, the most accurate site data will always come from website tracking done at the server level.
Let’s dive into the data, from Alexa first – a popular website rank rating service, an Amazon brand – and then look at the third party data from Webalizer and MailChimp.
First of Two Data Set Reviews
The data below will start with Alexa’s data on some conventional housing websites.
Zillow
Realtor (NAR)
National Association of Home Builders
Clayton Homes
Sun Communities
MHVillage
Manufactured Housing Institute (ManufacturedHousing.org, MHI)
Some of the sites that follow, like the one above for MHI, have disclaimers from Alexa that say – “not enough data.” See an example, shown below.
MHProNews.com (a.k.a. MHMarketingSalesManagement.com)
George Allen (Community Investor blog)
MHReview (MHR)
American Housing Advocates
Unpacking the Data
When a webmaster
- has signed up a site for statistical ratings,
- and if that data is collected from the server itself,
- as logic suggests, that server-based data is routinely going to be the most accurate.
Outside measurements services that AREN’T based on the server are at best, estimates. The more specialized the website, the more skewed that estimated data could be.
That said, the following data from Webalizer, which is server based data, becomes useful and meaningful.
Note that server based Webalizer reflects that MHProNews has more than double the page views vs. what Alexa estimated. This makes the points of server-based weblog generated data vs. estimates from a service, like Alexa.
The Alexa estimates reflects that MHProNews is well ahead of MHI in engagement.
MHI data, if they have given Alexa and/or others with the proper server access, may be accurate. But as noted above, the data from MHProNews is at best a third party estimate. Server based data from Webalizer is thus going to be more accurate.
Webtech – Under the Hood
Getting a bit more technical. MHProNews is a frankly complex site in terms of it’s structure. That goes back to the web developer, almost a decade ago and long gone, who designed the site for MHMarketingSalesManagement.com a.k.a. MHProNews. We’re not faulting anyone, just stating facts. For example, there are a number of c-Panels, and numerous URLs, which have their own unique traffic counts.
While weblogs are generated automatically, gathering the data from individual c-Panels is a manual process.
So the data above from Webalizer represents only one c-Panel data source, not all of them. We don’t have time to gather all that data together for this article, but its important to note that the last time we did so, the final graphic was absolutely accurate, per third-party Webalizer data. Webalizer tells us traffic is higher today than a year ago, so interpolating the data means that graphic is now an understatement of actual totals.
Mail Chimp
The Bottom Line
MHInsider ™, the Manufactured Housing Institute, George Allen’s Community-Investor blog, ManufacturedHousingReview (MHR), AHA, et al do not reveal their news blog traffic data.
When MHI last published their data, MHProNews was over 500 percent higher than their self-reported traffic. While their website is ‘prettier’ today now then then, their low page per view and high bounce rate don’t suggest a reason to think that the spread between MHProNews and MHI are significantly different. We’ve grown, they may have too, but the spread is likely the same.
Alexa’s report of MHI’s high bounce rate, and low pages per visit speaks volumes.
Based upon known data, and visual evidence like what is shown below, all the evidence points to MHProNews being the runaway number one news source in the manufactured housing industry.
It’s interesting to note that Alexa’s estimate, and Webalizer both reflect that traffic on MHProNews is rising.
The bottom line is that the evidence strongly suggests that MHProNews is still the runaway #1 trade source in the manufactured home industry, and has been for several years. Our internal data shows traffic and our email list are both up from the same time, a year ago.
The data does matter, and the facts point to industry professionals and investors relying upon MHProNews for the most complete, independent, and trusted news. ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
(Third party images, and cites are provided under fair use guidelines.)
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Soheyla is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
