 |
|
|
|
|
What are "Requests," "Visits" and "Visitors"
?
"Requests" are another word for Hits, which are the total
number of files transferred. (ie if an HTML page contains
5 graphics and an imbedded audio track, the total number
of Requests (or hits) would be 7 (1 HTML + 5 images + 1
audio file.)
"Visitors" are the total number of unique people that
viewed your site or the page you may be filtering on. This
number is usually based on unique IP addresses that visit
your site, but can also be based on cookies if you are using
them. Go into Hit List Help/Index/Cookies/Using Cookies
for more information.
"Visits" are the number of times these "Visitors" stopped
by your site.
A helpful analogy:
Think of your web site as a convenience store. If Joe
walks into your convenience store at 11 am to buy a
cup of coffee and a bagel, and returns at 3pm to buy
a candy bar and a soda, Joe is one "Visitor", making
two "Visits" and four "Requests".
Why are there more Requests than Visits and Visitors?
This is because each "visitor" makes multiple "requests"
when on your website. Remember that every time someone
goes to your home page, often there are many more items
than just HTML information there (ie GIFs, JPEGs, maybe
a query engine, etc.). For example, when you were on
Marketwave's home page, you see the frame across the
top with the navbar buttons to allow you to go deeper
into our site, various customer and Marketwave logos,
etc. All of these items have to be "requested" by your
browser when you hit our home page, making the number
of "requests" already higher than the "visit" number
(assuming you only visited us a few times).
Where do I find the number of "Hits" to the site?
As discussed above, in Hit List, this is usually the
total number of "requests" in a Hit List report. In
the commonly used Complete Analysis and/or Executive
Summary reports, the element is called "total number
of requests" and is right at the top of these reports,
for easy viewing.
|
|
|
|
|
