All websites want to publically say how good they are "we have X number of users on our database", "today we had X number of applications" "X number of candidate searches on our database" etc.

That's great! But who cares?

While statistics play an important part of "selling" your website. It is important to step back and think what kind of statistics are necessary or important for users to see on your website.

• Is the data accurate?
• Can/has the data be manipulated?

A "hit" or "page view" is one of the easiest statistics to manipulate. Every time you view or refresh the page, the counter is incremented. Yes, you may only count the number of UNIQUE views - but can you really trust this unless it is independently verified by a 3rd party?

Measurable statistics should not be influenced or manipulated by external variables. The only statistics I believe a job site should show in real-time are

• number of jobs
• number of registered users/employers/candidates in the database
• number of applications for a job

Remember there are heavy penalties for misleading and deceptive conduct. Are your statistics accurate?