A survey of web site success metrics used by Internet‐dependent organizations in Korea

Purpose The key purpose of the present research is to learn whether businesses use web site metrics to support business strategies and how web site metrics used differ by web site categories. Design/methodology/approach A combination of a preliminary telephone survey and an e‐mail questionnaire survey was used to gather data. Potential respondents were contacted by phone to find firms measuring web site success. An e‐mail survey was conducted to learn how metrics were used to measure the success of a corporate web site. Responses were examined to study not only purposes and net benefits of measurement but also metrics measured. Findings Findings of the study indicated that a majority of businesses which took part in this survey were using the metrics more for operational than for strategic purposes. This observation is to some extent consistent with the normative view highlighted by the literature that organizations should measure how successfully their web sites support business objectives and, therefore, the web metrics to measure web site success should differ by web site categories. Research limitations/implications This explorative research is not based on a large sample, thereby limiting its academic contribution. Since the data analysis is over eight web site categories, future research will need to employ a sample large enough to eliminate any potential bias. Practical implications A key managerial implication is that businesses need to measure the success of their web site using web metrics tied to their business objectives, if they want their web site to effectively support business strategies. Originality/value This paper is the first attempt to explore the way that Internet‐dependent businesses measure the success of their web site via web metrics, for the purpose not only of observing some patterns between web metrics measured and site categories, but also of examining whether metrics were used for strategic or merely for operational purposes.