what's a hit please

[Jayne]

Hi,

I was reading this contol pannel my host has sent me, could you please tell me what a hit is and why pages are important..I thought you just had to get people to click on your site to get noticed.. I just need to know what is important and i'll take no notice of the rest.

The contol panel is very confusing and scary :D

Thank You

Jayne

[Top Hat]

A hit is a download of a file from your web server.

For example viewing this page will actually be several hits, 1 for the html, 1 for each graphic(logo, ads,forum buttons), 1 for a style sheet so it might 1 view of this page may be 20 hits

BUT, lots of people call page views hits, so 1 hit might be actually be 1 page view.

Sorry its so confusing

If you talk to advertisers they often talk of hits (in millions) which may only be thousands of page views or visitor.

So hits can be fairly meaningless.

Look for page views or unique visitors.

[MinuWeb]

different stats programs also use different methods to display the results, making it more confusing. One of the simplest to understand is AWStats if you host has it......

[Jayne]

Thank You Top Hat and Tony :D

Much clearer now

Jayne

[ChooseRentals]

Hi Jayne,

I'm not sure how your host displays your site statistics, but a free online version I have used in the past is http://www.statcounter.com/ which seems fairly effective and breaks down the results into various easy to understand graphs. They also have other webmaster tools on their site which might be of help for a budding webmaster. :D

One point of note, is that each of the pages on your site has the same page title, that is the <title> </title> bit in the code. I find that it is a good idea to have different titles on each page to target your keywords. (Hope you don't mind the advice). What do other forum members think?

[Jayne]

Thanks Warren,

The one i've got has graphs and things, but when you don't know the basics, they just look like spagetti :lol:

The more I read the more I learn, could take a while though :lol: so thanks again.

Jayne

[ChooseRentals]

For me the most important aspect is the number of unique visitors that arrive at the site, this figure shows each individual who visits your site and a good statistics program should also be able to show where they came from, what web browser they were using (good for validating webpages) and the pages they viewed.

Page hits/views on their own can be easily misread, and be triggered by search engine spiders as well as clients.

The other aspect of these stats is that you can track the path the visitor took to reach you, be it through a search engine, directory or direct access.

[Jayne]

It's got all that stuff on, plus loads more..I just don't understand them yet :D

I only found out what a host was a couple of months ago and i've only had my internet since Feb, so loads to learn...Some days I think my head will explode :lol:

Jayne

[ChooseRentals]

I've been building and running my own sites since 2000, teaching myself as I go along, and I'm still learning. My head has exploded so many times I've lost count and there have been moments when I never thought I would understand it, but with the help of the internet and forums there is always someone out there who has had the same problem or is in the know and most are willing to guide you in the right direction.

[Ravenfire]

A hit:- when someone gets a saucepan and bangs their husband over the head with it!

What is it you use Jayne is it Webstats, Statcounter?

[Jayne]

I've been building and running my own sites since 2000, teaching myself as I go along, and I'm still learning. My head has exploded so many times I've lost count and there have been moments when I never thought I would understand it, but with the help of the internet and forums there is always someone out there who has had the same problem or is in the know and most are willing to guide you in the right direction.

I shall pick your brain then :lol: are you on 24 hr call :lol:

Jayne

[Jayne]

A hit:- when someone gets a saucepan and bangs their husband over the head with it!

What is it you use Jayne is it Webstats, Statcounter?


To hit my husband with? :lol: got to say rolling pin, haven't I :lol:

Jayne

[Ravenfire]

Lol...:)

[babybiz]

I've just started using statcounter which is brill for the old thicky like me ;) I can acutally understand what is going on with it and it's superb at showing me which keywords are working and which aren't. Find the whole thing a bit freaky though knowing people can watch me go about their site when I think I'm all hidden!

[Rob Holmes]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hit

:)

[Jayne]

Thanks Rob...I think :lol: lots of info on there!

Jayne