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A number of measures are used to analyse website traffic.
The three common
measures of web site activity are hits, pages and sessions.
 | A hit is a request to a server for a file so includes all files on a page. A
page may contain HTML, text, graphic or media files. So a page with 9 graphics
generates 10 hits while a lengthy article might produce a single hit. It is
therefore a poor measure of a site's activity. |
| Pages are the files that deliver the goods to your browser and include
.htm,
and .xml as well as generated pages such as .asp & .cgi. This is a better measure
of a site's activity. However, it is an unsatisfactory way to compare sites as a
page which is packed with timetable information cannot be equated to a page which
delivers one piece of information. (The term impression is often used to refer
to pages in the context of advertising impressions). |
| Sessions measures the number of users who visited a site during a certain
time period. This is harder to measure than might be imagined. An IP address is
unique but one address can be recycled by the service provider for another user. Some Web
servers,
such as AOL, request the page not for an individual but on behalf of their proxy server which they
forward to the client. In spite of the problems, user sessions give a good idea of the number
of visits. |
There are firms that sell software to analyse
the log file for web masters and allow them to monitor those who are
browsing the site but your secrets are safe.
Web metrics
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