• DMW Media, Wednesday, December 19, 2007 2 PM

Rohit Bhargava lists the metrics that brands should focus on when it comes to Internet marketing next year -- deeming his list "The Top 10 Most Underappreciated Metrics to Track in 2008."

For search, Bhargava says that marketers should focus on doing a qualitative assessment of the inbound links a site gets. Take the time to figure out how authoritative the sites that drive traffic to your site are. Go beyond PageRank and judge the quality of their content directly, as well as the quality of the audience they bring to you.

Measuring how many users get to your site by directly typing in the (correct) URL will provide insight into how well-known your brand is, in addition to a read on the efficacy of any on and offline ad campaigns that feature the Web address.

Bhargava also notes that time spent on site and clickstream data are of particular importance to search marketing efforts -- as they provide a measure of how well a site is constructed and how easy it is to find targeted information. If users are heading right back to a search engine after visiting your site, it's likely because they didn't find what they were looking for.

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