March 6, 2007 4:44 PM
Hits and visits
Hits have to do with how many times your page was shown. Visits have to do with how many people have come to your site. Unique visits are how many different people have come to your site.For example, if I have been to your site on two different occasions, and each time looked at the main page, then opened one post, and commented (which means I saw a "Thank you for commenting page" and also went back to the post I commented on), then you would have 8 hits, 2 visits, and 1 unique visit.
Thanks, Michelle! Seriously. One less thing to keep me awake at night :)
Posted in Blogging | Permalink
Comments
Well, that certainly makes sense. Thanks for the very prompt answer to my life-changing question!
Posted by: Jill | March 6, 2007 6:07 PM
You also have to keep in mind that if you are tracking hits for a specific page, they probably indicate how many times that page was loaded. If you are looking at hits for an entire site, then the hit number will appear grossly exaggerated. Why? Because of the way the protocol that serves up content works.
When you request a page in your browser, you are given the page. However, a page usually has multiple pictures or video, sometimes from lots of different sources. The browser requests all of these as a different request. So the picture of Barbara in the upper right has its own hit count. Thus the hits for the entire site are actually the hits from everything that can possible be served up all added together.
Visits is really a better number because by posting this comment, I'm generating 2 hits for the page and 2 hits for the pictures, because I've loaded the page to read it, and after I press submit, I will load it again.
Posted by: King of Fools | March 6, 2007 8:06 PM
Exactly, King of Fools. :)
You help so many people every day, Barbara, glad to have a chance to help you! :)
Posted by: Michelle Potter | March 7, 2007 2:37 PM
