Web statistics can be as confusing
at first, as they are informative. As a business owner, when it comes to
advertising, it's important to know website stats. Here's some basic information
to differentiate unique visitors and visitors, page views and hits.
Advertisers and Advertising
Advertising is an important and
necessary way to get new and even established businesses seen. Deciding who to
advertise with can make a difference. When offering advertising space, or
considering the purchase ad space from someone else, it's important for both
parties to be aware of the unique visitors, visitors and page views for a
specific amount of time (this is usually shown in months, but daily is important
to consider in some cases). This gives both businesses an idea of whether it's
worth paying or charging for advertising on a site. Below are the site
statistics to pay attention to:
Unique Visitor
A unique visitor is a unique IP
address that has made at least one hit on one page of the web site during a
certain period of time. If this visitor makes more than one visit during this
period of time, it is counted only once as a unique visit. *Basically, if I
visit your site 1 time today, I am counted as a unique visitor. If I come back
to your site 10 more times today, my visits are counted as 1 unique visit and 10
visitors. (For more search this: define:Unique Visitor )
Visitor
A visitor is also known as a session
or a user session. It is the total number of people who access a website over a
certain period of time. Unlike unique visitors which is a net number, a visitor
is a gross number. This means two "sessions" by a single user would count as two
visitors. *Basically, if I visit your site 5 times today, I am counted as 1
unique visitor and then as 5 visitors for the day. (For more search this:
define:Visitor )
Page Views
The number of times a particular web
page is requested from a Web host's server and delivered to a users browser. The
number of page views delivered across an entire website can be used to
demonstrate the volume of traffic a website receives. *Basically, this tells you
how many pages are being viewed by your visitors. (For more search this:
define:page view)
Hits
This generally means ALL requests
from a webserver including requests by a web browser for html pages, jpeg's,
gif's and other images. Hits is a phrase often thrown around but is generally
not very meaningful in quantitfying search engine traffic. *Hits count every
single thing on your page that loads. It's not an accurate measure of anything
worthwhile. (For more search this: define:hits)
Website Owner Offering
Advertising
If you are a website owner and wish
to offer advertising to others, be thoughtful. Traffic may be a relative thing;
think about if YOU would pay to advertise on a site that has that much or that
little traffic.
While this information applies to
your website stats, you can also put this to general use with Newsletters. If
you only have 10 newsletter subscribers, you probably shouldn't charge for
advertising space. On the other hand, you may be able to charge a small fee if
your subscriber list is a few hundred and then accordingly as your subscriber
list grows.
Business Owner Looking to
Advertise
If you are considering paying your
hard-earned money to advertise on another site, be informed. If a specific
website hasn't volunteered their stat information, don't be shy about asking.
You work hard for your money and you should have a good idea of what you are
getting. You probably don't want to pay for a month of advertising when the
website you are advertising on only gets 40 visitors a day. Same is to be said
for newsletter advertising. If the business offering ad space in their
newsletter doesn't provide the number of subscribers on their list, Ask for it.
Then decide for yourself if it's worth the cost.
Free Traffic Statistic Programs
If you don't have a traffic
statistic program on for your site and you want one, do a search for: Free
Traffic Stats. You'll find several options. Once you sign up for a program you
typically only need to add a bit of coding to your site for it to begin working.
But before you choose one program over another, here is something to consider:
If you own a website business,
counters don't look very professional. If the stat program you are considering
requires you to use a visible counter on your site, opt to keep looking. There
are programs that do not require a visible counter.
Consider this: If you visit a
site, where you are thinking of placing an order, will you order if a) you don't
know them, b) their counter says 115th visitor ?
Or, on the other hand, what if there
counter is a HUGE number - it's probably counting every single page load and
that's not an accurate count of visitors.
Both of these scenarios raise a red
flag, or at least, a yellow one.. There are so many sites are out there, just
keep searching.
In Conclusion, it pays to
know and understand your website statistics.
About the Author
Judi Cox is a work at home mom
living in the Ohio Valley with her husband and 4 children. Judi's current online
interests include working on two of her websites
Mom's Little Garden
and Momma Muse.
