Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I don`t understand this term at all. Can someone explain this to me. Exactly what is a `unique` visitor? And is he important (or she ) very important to daily or monthly numbers? If this is a repeat question, I apologize. I checked and did not see a post addressing to this subject.

Thanks much.

  

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Vannie

Work & Family @ BellaOnline.com
Vannie at Twitter

A "unique" visitor is one that has never been to your site. So the "unique" visitors count in your site statistics will give you somewhat of an accurate count of how many new people have visited your site since the last time you checked. I also believe that they are considered unique only if their specific IP address has not been logged before on you site. I am not an IT guy, so I may be wrong. If I am someone please advise. To answer your next question of " is this unique visitor important to your numbers?", every visitor is important. If you are looking for New Visitors than this unique visitor is VERY Important, if you are lookinf for repeat customers than it may not be as important. I hope this helped. Best Wishes!

Ken~

Close with the description... nice job.

Let`s say you have 100 visits to your site.  That number, visits, is a total number.  It could, theoretically, be one person visiting a hundred times, two people visiting fifty, four visiting twenty-five, or ten visiting ten times (you get my drift).

The unique is that smaller number.  How many individuals are visiting?  So for instance, in the four visiting twenty-five, that`s four uniques.  It`s a key number to know your actual audience.

As an example in my day, one of the sites we manage gets twenty-one thousand visits a month.  However, only around 7,500 are unique visitors, so the actual reach is much closer to 7,500 people.  From that point, if you`re so inclined, what can be really useful is a statistics package that will actually track how many times each user visits the site (in the example above, about 2,000 visit it five three a month or more).

As far as basic statistics go, the "hit" is the least important measure (almost worthless), the "visit" is important as that is more useful, but the "unique visitor" tells you (approximately) your actual reach.  This can be skewed by multiple people using the same machine, etc. but it`s a pretty good, if not the best, indicator.

Baylor University had a good, simple summary:
"Unique Visitor—A distinct visitor to a Web site. Regardless of how many times you visit a Web site, you are only one unique visitor."

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"It`s not work, it`s network!"

Portage Media Solutions
http://www.portagemedia.com
My Blog: http://www.interactivemediatips.com

Ken,

Thanks, yes, this is very helpful. And you are correct, every visitor is important. But your answer makes me better understand another level of marketing my site. I know that I have repeat visitors because of my site newsletter. I am just now starting to think of the `unique visitor`--this phrase was tossed at me without any explaination. 

My next question is how do I get this information? Is there software that tracks these visitors.  

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Vannie

Work & Family @ BellaOnline.com
Vannie at Twitter

 

I`m not the "techie type" like some folks here. Those folks have an understanding of stats that far outweighs my small knowledge of the subject.

So please pardon me if I appear to speak from the "floor of the store" ... rather than from the "technical side".

Unique visitor stats are very important ... as a part of understanding the dynamics that are happening at your web site.

In reality it is more important to look at your "return visitor" number ... than looking at your "unique visitor" number. Return visitors have found something that they like at your site ... and returning for a second, third, or fourth look. (Or like here, return visitors build a following)

Simply subtract your "unique visitor" number from your "Total Visits". That will give you an idea of the total number of folks returning to your site.

As your site gains popularity both numbers will grow exponetially. With your return visitor percentage getting bigger and bigger.

As you gain more info from your stats, you`ll start to notice that not only are visitors important ... but the "page view" stats are even more critical.

Are folks simply doing a "drive by" ... visiting your front page and then leaving? Or are they spending time viewing more and more of your pages within your site. If you are an on-line store ... that number is very important ... as it will show if folks are "browsing thru your store" ... window shopping or looking for something in particular.

Brand Loyalty is integral to success on the web. And as time goes by, you will see from the numbers if you are gaining or losing ground with both "brand loyaly" (return visitors) and overall traffic.

Here`s a guide for you to understand some of the terms ...

http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer/simpleton.html

 

Hi  digitalvision313,

I am so happy that I found this site. I guess that first visit made me a unique visitor to SUN.

re: "From that point, if you`re so inclined, what can be really useful is a statistics package that will actually track how many times each user visits the site"  Can you give me the name of such a package? 

With Ken`s help and yours I am understanding this.

Thanks.

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Vannie

Work & Family @ BellaOnline.com
Vannie at Twitter

TJG,

Thanks so much for the great link. I started reading it online, but decided to print it instead (I am printing doing that now). I retain information better when I read from hard copy :) 

I must admit that I never thought of my return visitors as "Brand Loyalty". Of course you are right, returning weekly or month after month is brand loyalty. As I said in my post to Ken I know of the repreat visitors because of my column newsletter count. This makes me feel pretty good.  

Thanks again for the link. It`s printed and ready to be read.

p.s. I am assuming the title of the article "Simpletons Guide to Web Server Analysis" means that Mr. or Mrs. Simpleton wrot the article

 

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Vannie

Work & Family @ BellaOnline.com
Vannie at Twitter

I really think the best thing is to take a look at your site, it`s size, it`s type (e-commerce, how it`s served, etc) and see which package is the best for you.

Prices can vary, and a really good statistics package with clickthrough tracking isn`t dirt cheap, but it`s worth the money for the knowledge it gives you.  On average, its about $40-$100 per month depending on the features you need (some features as far as reporting, some have to do with the tech side or integration requirements) which totally depend on the type of site you have or are going to have, how it`s hosted, etc.


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"It`s not work, it`s network!"

Portage Media Solutions
http://www.portagemedia.com
My Blog: http://www.interactivemediatips.com

Vannie -

Some specific web analytic suggestions for you:

WebTrends (www.webtrends.com)

Hit Box Professional from Web Side Story (www.websidestory.com)

Nihuo Web Analyzer (http://www.nihuo.com/)

Nihuo and WebTrends read your web log data, while Hit Box requires the addition of a small piece of code to your pages to track activity.

 

 

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Mike Walsh
Hickory Bay Company
www.hickorybay.com

Thanks for the links mikehb. I will take a look at them today.

I cannot begin to tell you all how helpful your comments are.  I am finally "getting it".  I especially appreciate information from *all* sides. So please pardon me if I appear to speak from the "floor of the store" ... rather than from the "technical side.", because its helps me to keep a balance of the technical and I guess something I will call "through the eyes of Vannie". 

Before this, I had only concentrated on learning HTML. I learned that very quickly. Truthfully, I paid not attention to the `workings` of the site. I am ready to move forward, so every bit of information is important to me. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vannie

Work & Family @ BellaOnline.com
Vannie at Twitter