Teach me Stats?

[StephenT]

I want to know the difference between stats that I am seeing. My host has a webalizer stat thing that is very informative, but varies greatly from Google analytics, which I also have installed on my site. On a particular day, analytics shows me having 39 fewer visits than webalizer. Why the difference? What are hits vs. visits?
You can tell I don't know much about this stuff, but then, that's why I'm here!

[Kayla Fay]

A hit is a request for something from your site. For example, if you have an html page with one jpg graphic, a visit to that webpage will count as two hits - one for the html file and one for the jpg - but only one visit.

You'll find, however, that stats vary widely from tool to tool.

[StephenT]

Ok, so I can divide the number of visits by 2 and that might give me the number of people coming to my site?

[Kayla Fay]

No. It depends on how many 'things' are on your page. If you have 15 images on one page, and one html file, you'll have 16 hits for one visitor.

A good explanation is here.

http://www.opentracker.net/en/articl...-pageviews.jsp

Google Analytics is a good way to measure your traffic.

[StephenT]

Thanks! Helpful, I think. I'm learning, maybe.

[retta719]

There are lots of different traffic measurement programs, Google Analytics seems to be the most popular and is often considered an accurate measure. On any given day you can run 10 different traffic trackers and get 10 different results. The truth is nothing is truly accurate.

Google Analytics and the tracking provided by hosting are considered good measures. I think Google Analytics is easier to read.... you can just open it up and look right at the number of Unique Visitors as opposed to hits or pageviews.

Also within Analytics is the average time spent on site, which can be handy in determining what people are doing when they come to your site.

[StephenT]

Thanks Loretta. My host stats look good since they are about 200% more, but I don't feel good about the numbers. I wish, but I don't think so. Too bad because there is a lot of information there!

[Lynn Terry]

What you really want to look at is Unique Visitors, most visited pages on your site, and pages + keywords that brought them there. I recommend you choose one analytics program and stick with that to avoid confusion. If you're using Google, just use Google - they have a lot of extra features too.

Hits are ANY hit to your website. So when I view a web page, I view the page and each of the images on that page. So if you have 3 images on one page, my visit counts as 4 hits. Ignore hits - look at the number of Unique Visitors.

[HireMyMum]

Stephen,

You can also get a great Google Analytics app for the iPhone, that lets you check stats on the run, I usually do mine while walking to pick the kids up from school. It is also great when you have more than one site as you can nest all the accounts under one profile making viewing quick and hopefully enjoyable.

Cheers
Leigh

[StephenT]

Thanks Leigh!