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JUPITER RESEARCH REPORTS THAT ONE IN SEVEN CONSUMER-FACING WEB SITES HAS AN ERROR ON THEIR HOME PAGE SEVERE ENOUGH TO CAUSE VISITOR DEFECTION(New York, NY - December 17, 2003) -- Jupiter Research, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), today announced that one in seven Web site home pages it recently tested failed a simple link integrity test with one or more errors severe enough to cause visitor defection.Based on a December 2003 review of 239 well-known consumer-facing Web sites, Jupiter Research's new report "Managing Web Site Quality: Stanching Customer Defection" found that one in seven consumer-facing Web sites had prominent errors on their home pages. Of the home pages tested, which ranged across a variety of industries, 24 had broken links ("404" errors), 14 provoked server errors, five linked to sites with nonexistent host names, and three pointed to servers that responded with server unavailable errors. In all, Jupiter Research tested over 22,000 links, more than 50% of which were routed through manual "redirect" or tracking scripts, to measure consumer behavior, a tactic especially prone to generating errors. According to a recent Jupiter Research Executive Survey, the number one challenge faced by Web site operators is improving site usability (49% of respondents), a priority that outweighs the challenge of budget constraints (47% of respondents) or measuring ROI (40% of respondents). Despite this priority, Web site quality remains poor for many Web sites; based on the one in seven failure rate of home page link integrity, Jupiter Research estimates that many Web sites have errors severe enough to undermine visitors' confidence and cause them to turn elsewhere. According to David Schatsky, Senior Vice President of Research at Jupiter Research, "Despite the high priority of improving site usability, the basics of Web site operations - having error free pages, consumer-friendly messaging and navigation that makes sense - require putting yourself in the visitor's shoes, a tact only indirectly served by traditional quality assurance." The report counsels site operators to adopt a raft of visitor-centric site management tactics and technologies to ensure the highest possible site integrity. The complete findings of this report are immediately available to Jupiter Research clients online. For more information on the report or Jupiter Research's Site Technologies & Operations service, please contact Kieran Kelly at [email protected] or call 1-800-481-1212.
About Jupitermedia Corporation "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties address a variety of subjects including, for example, the competitive environment in which Jupitermedia Corporation competes; the unpredictability of Jupitermedia Corporation's future revenues, expenses, cash flows and stock price; Jupitermedia Corporation's ability to integrate acquired businesses, products and personnel into its existing businesses; Jupitermedia Corporation's international and venture fund investments; any material change in Jupitermedia Corporation's intellectual property rights and continued growth and acceptance of information technology and the Internet. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and uncertainties, refer to Jupitermedia Corporation's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements included herein are made as of the date of this press release, and Jupitermedia Corporation assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements after the date hereof.
Contact: All current Jupiter Research press releases can be found online at www.internet.com/corporate/press.html. All current Jupitermedia Corporation press releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.internet.com/corporate/press.html.
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