Hits

From: Mark Brownlow <markbrownlow_at_ibizadmin.com>
Date: Wed 30 May 2001 11:31:51 -0500

A couple of recent posts have talked about hits, as in
"traffic of X hits/day". Thought it might be useful to
remind newcomers to the field that hits is a fairly
meaningless measure of website traffic.

This article - http://www.ibizBasics.com/web013001.htm -
explains why, but the gist of it is that if one visitor
visits one page...

"Each time the Web server sends out a file (any file) it
records one hit. So a plain Web page that consists only
of text would make the server record a single hit. If
that page also contained five pictures, the server
would have to send six files (the page file, plus five
graphic files) and would record *6 hits*.

Now you start to see the problem when quoting "hits"
as a measure of how busy - or popular - a site is.
If you view a page on a complex website, one that
contains many graphics and other elements, you generate
a lot of hits compared to when you view a page on a
simple site where there are no graphics. But there's
still just ONE PERSON doing the viewing!"

Best,

Mark Brownlow, VP Research
Internet Business Forum, Inc.
http://www.ibizHome.com



Received on Wed May 30 2001 - 11:31:51 CDT