Metrics company comScore has announced that it has introduced a new suite of measurements based upon site "visits". Visits are defined as the number of times an individual accesses a site with breaks between access of at least half-an-hour.

Previously, website metrics have largely been based upon page impressions, and this has been the main way in which publishers, for example, have sold advertising on their sites. However, modern web pages based on Javascript and AJAX, in particular, load new information onto pages without a reload. This might mean that a person only registers a single page impression even though they consume a lot of information on a site. Measuring such sites on the basis of page impressions is clearly an unfair way to judge them.

Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore stated: “As technologies like AJAX change the Internet landscape, certain measures of engagement, such as page views, are diminishing in significance for many Web properties ... The introduction of these new metrics based on ‘visits’ provides an alternative for measuring user engagement that tells us how frequently visitors are actually returning to the site to view more content.”

The move appears to be particularly good news for social network sites. A recount based on visits as opposed to page impressions moved Facebook from 36th position on the web to second, according to the company. Owners of social media sites will also be able to offer measurements of unique visits per visitor, to show a measure of how engaging their sites are.