January 8, 2010

Publication Web sites hit viewer milestone

Publication Web sites hit viewer milestone

As 2009 drew to a close, Vanderbilt University Medical Center's publication Web sites reached a major milestone — 1 million page views. (Well, 1,006,380 to be exact).

The total represents each time someone visits a page of the Web sites for the seven publications produced by VUMC News and Communications, as tracked by Google Analytics, a program which measures visitors to Web sites.

The publication sites are:

• VUMC Reporter (www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter),
• House Organ (www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/houseorgan),
• Lens (www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/lens),
• Momentum (www.vicc.org/momentum),
• …on their way (http://ontheirway.vanderbiltchildrens.org),
• Vanderbilt Medicine (www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltmedicine), and
• Vanderbilt Nurse (www.nursing.vanderbilt.edu/nurse).

“We are very excited to reach the 1 million page views mark,” said Wayne Wood, executive director of new media and electronic publications.

Several of the sites have been redesigned in the past few months, and 2009 was the first year that readers could be tracked on all the sites.

“Our Web sites already incorporate videos, slide shows, podcasts, and reader comments, and in the coming year there will be additional new media elements introduced,” Wood said.

The most popular story from the past year was the House Organ feature on Kaitlyn Lasitter, the girl injured in the amusement park accident in Kentucky, who had her foot reattached at Vanderbilt.

Stories on H1N1 flu and the Medical School’s match day were also popular favorites.

About 75 percent of page views came from the VUMC Reporter, the weekly newspaper, with the majority of those coming through Web searches.

The second highest contributor was House Organ, followed Lens, the research publication. Readers from more than 200 countries visited the sites.