How Much Do Hits Really Matter?

When you’re starting out you hear all kinds of confusing terminology about how to tell how your website is doing. Hits, visitors, page loads… what do they all mean?

Hits really matter very little. A hit is simply a load of a file. Every image on your page as it loads adds to the number of hits. Despite this, you will often hear people talking about how many hits they get.

There are different kinds of visitors you will see in your statistics. Repeat, unique and first time visitors are very important.

First time does not strictly mean the visitor has never been to your website before. The determination of who is a first time visitor depends on whether they have a cookie already from your website to tell your stats program that they’ve been there before.

Repeat visitors are good for your website, of course. These are, as the name states, people who keep coming back to your website. If you have something to draw people back to your website you have more chances to sell to them.

Unique visitors is quite simply a combination of these two.

Page loads can be interesting, as they give you an idea as to how many pages your visitors are visiting. Unless you are making sales straight off one page, you want to see multiple pages visited.

One of the most interesting items a good statistics program will give you is the search terms your website is being found under. Some will link to the search engine page you were on, making it easy to determine how well you rank for that phrase; others do not. I recommend using Digital Point’s free keyword tracker to keep track of these. If you are being found for a phrase but rank low for it, it is probably one you should focus some more effort on.

Your stats should also give you information on where your visitors are coming from, both in terms of which countries and from what websites.

You should also pay attention to the technology and screen resolution your visitors are using. If you designed at a higher resolution, but most of your visitors are using 800x600, you need to be certain that they can view your website correctly, and do not need to scroll from left to right to read your content. Pay attention also to their browsers. Not everyone uses Internet Explorer, and websites do display differently in the different browsers. It can be inconvenient to check your site across so many factors, but this is the best way to keep your site useable for as many of your visitors as possible.

Your website statistics are a great way to keep track of your website’s progress and areas you could use to improve upon. Over time they will help you to focus your energies on more productive areas for your home business.

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