| One of the great things about doing business online is | | | | Page Views: Every single viewing (downloading) of |
| that you can measure almost everything, all the way | | | | a page on your website is a page view. A unique |
| down to what one person does on your website. It's | | | | visitor could view four pages and then refresh one |
| being able to follow a customer around a store and | | | | page, for a total of five page views. |
| track their every action. | | | | Referrers: This is the URL of a website that refers |
| Your web statistics provide you with the information | | | | visitors to your site. It can be a site with a link to your |
| that you need to test and measure your website's | | | | own or a search engine. |
| performance. These are details that can tell you | | | | Entry Pages: The first page a visitor sees when |
| everything from how many people visit your site, to | | | | they arrive on your website. |
| when they visit your site, where they come from, and | | | | Exit Pages: The last page a visitor visited before |
| what they do when they get to your site. | | | | leaving your site. |
| You can find all of the statistics that you need if you | | | | Search Terms: Also called "keywords," these are |
| know what to look for. Here is a brief glossary of the | | | | the words and phrases visitors type into search |
| main terms that you'll need to know in order to | | | | engines to find your site. |
| measure your site's statistics: | | | | Clickthroughs: The number of times that a visitor |
| Hits: A hit is simply an action that appears in your | | | | clicks through to your site from an ad or link on |
| log as a web page loads. The number of hits you get | | | | another site. |
| depends on your pages' design. A web page of just | | | | Impressions: The number of times a web page |
| text will register one hit, while a page with 20 graphics | | | | containing your ad is viewed. |
| will register 20 hits. This might seem like an impressive | | | | Web Analytics: Software packages (usually free) |
| number, but it doesn't really tell you anything about how | | | | that measure raw data and presents your results in an |
| popular your site is, so it's not very useful. You can | | | | easy-to-read, searchable statistic format. Many ISPs |
| ignore this statistic. | | | | provide a basic web analytics package as part of |
| Visitors: Visitors are individuals who visit your site. | | | | your account. |
| The number of unique visitors your site gets is the | | | | Traffic: The number of visitors moving through |
| number you should use in any calculation using | | | | your website. |
| "visitors." | | | | |