Now your website is live and your looking through the stats you see 'Hits' and 'Visits' but what do they mean?

This has got to be the most common question I am asked once a website has been set up. Over the years I have found the best analogy is this:

Pretend you own a shopping centre such as "The Trafford Centre" in Manchester. Each time someone enters the building they have made a 'visit'. As they look around the shopping centre they spot a store that they want to go into. As they enter the store they register a 'hit'. So the customer can enter many stores (hits) but make just one trip (visit) to the shopping centre.

So how is this helpful? As the owner of the shopping centre you probably want to know which stores are performing well and which aren't. By looking at the number of hits to a store you can find out:

1. If the store is advertised enough / If links to the page are bold enough
2. If its location is wrong / If the page is linked into from the right pages 
3. If it's signage is not clear / If the link text is using the correct words
4. If it's wanted or needed / If a page is required
   and many more...

The hit totals alone will not point out causes of problems to you, you will need to do some further investigation and experiments. For example, back at the shopping centre, if the toilets aren't being used and people appear to go home sooner than you expect, then you maybe deduce that first of all you should put better signage to the toilets. However if people still leave early perhaps there isn't enough of the right stores to keep visitors interested.

There a many ways that the simple tracking of visits and hits to your website will aid your websites development. It is important that you take the time to study the figures and if you don't have time get someone who can. Shop owners rearrange there shops frequently until they feel the optimum is being achieved, you should do the same. No matter how good your website designer is they will never get you site perfect in one shot. This requires time, analysis and development.

Last update : 26-10-2007 09:16

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