Net Q & A

Question of the Month: December 2001

What Are "Hits" and Why Does It Matter?

Answer

The word "hit" is often taken to mean the number of visitors to a web site. This is actually misleading. Here are definitions of the word "hit" and other key terms in web site promotion:

Hits are requests for the server for a particular file. Because most web pages are made up of numerous files, a single person, visiting a single page of a web site, could easily run up 20, 30 or more “hits.”

A Page View is one person, looking at one web page. This is sometimes referred to as a “Page Impression.” This is measured based on the basic text file, and doesn’t count images, CGI scripts, Java applets, etc.

A Unique Visitor means one person, visiting any section of a web site.

 A Session means one person visiting one or more pages at a site during one visit. There is no generally agreed period of time that makes up a “session.”

Understanding the terminology is the first step toward understanding who is visiting your site, so you can evaluate your marketing and improve on it.

Jerry Lawson