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Webmaster-Now > promote a web site > statistics explained

Visit or session = one unique session identified
A sesssion is usually desactivated after 30 seconds of inactivity

View or impression = one unique page

Hit = one file, any page and graphic

The number of hits doesn't mean the number of visits or the number of pages viewed.

The number of hits of a page is the number of graphics on the page and the page itself (1 page with 5 graphics = 6 hits).

Example:

An unique visitor has viewed 5 pages with 3 pictures on each of them

Visit: 1
Pages viewed:  5
Number of hits:  20

Logs:
The statistics data are gathered in the log file on the hosting server. Every time a visitor enters a site and browses, all his activities are recorded in the log file. The statistics software reads the log file and translates the data into trends we can look at.

IP adress:
The IP adress is a number that identifies individually every computer connected to the Internet. This number is shown as 4 groups of 2 or 3 figures seperated with a dot.

Referral:
A referral is the URL of the previous web site in the user's path. A visitor has clicked on a referral link to visit your web site.
"no referrer" means that the visitor used another way to visit your web site. He either typed in the Url by himself, or from his favorites, or from an email link, etc.

Cookie:
A cookie is a small data file installed by the server on the visitor's computer. This file records and sends back to the server user's information such as the operating system of the computer. A cookie is very useful to identify regular visitors as they keep trace of their visits and remember them.

Proxy:
A proxy server is an intermediary between the hosting server and all the computers connected to the Internet by a local or distant network. All Internet users do not rely on proxies. It is the decision of the Internet provider to supply a proxy server or not. When an user visits for the first time a web site, the proxy records all the pages viewed. If there is a second visit from a computer using the same proxy, and if the content has not changed, the proxy will display the recorded pages from its server. There is no data transmission from the site hosting server to the computer but from the proxy server to the computer. This technology seems to increase the download speed. But, most of the time, the visits using a proxy are not written in the log file and are not taken into account in the statistics.

Learn more about statistics:

- Web statistics analysis

- Statistics reliability

 
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