Terminology
Here we will try and create a break down of the terminology used pertaining to web sites and web traffic.
- Hits
A hit is a request to a web server for a file or web page and is equal to the number of files requested, therefore one page load does not always equal one hit because often pages are made up of other images and other files which push up the number of hits counted. This number is extremely misleading and dramatically over-estimates popularity. For example a page with 1 html page and ten graphics, will give you 11 hits in total.
- Page views
A so called more accurate measure of web traffic is how many page views a web site has. This is just as misleading, as some visitors will view multiple pages, includes traffic from scrapers and search engine spiders indexing pages.
- Unique visitors
This is often determined by counting the unique number of IP adresses that have accessed given pages on a website in a given time frame. This is a better determination, as unique visitors buy and not hits or page loads.
- Human visitors
Human visitors are the target, as they are the actual interested parties, and is the target audience, that you are interested in.
- Spiders
A spider/search engine spider, accesses you pages to create a summary for their search index, their only purpose is to help create visibility, that will provide traffic from interested searchers of the search engine. There are good spiders, that provide you with traffic, and there are bad spiders that extract your content for their own use.
- Extractors
These can also be classified as spiders. Their main aim is to extract the content you have and attempt to mine the data for their own suspect purpose. Reselling infomation, or using your content to acquire rankings in the Search Engines.
- Indexing
The extraction of web content ( any content ), so that it can be searched, to find pertinent infomation quicker and more easily.
- CPA
Cost per Action, a marketing methodology of rewarding some one for sending you a quality customer that undertakes an action, i.e signs up or buys something.
- PPC
Pay per click, ie paying some one for clicking on a link that rewards you with a visitor.
- CPM
A method of determining the so called value of a adverisement, showing the cost of the visitor by the number of times the adverisement was shown.
- Banners
Simply put, image based advertisement, that once clicked, directs a visitor to your site. Often priced on CPM.
- Text links
A link from another page or website, that once clicked will bring the visitor to your site / destination of link. Text links can be free or can cost money when they are purchased from other sites.
- Backlinks
The number of links that point to a website or web page from other websites. Backlinks are not created equal in the eyes of search engines. They only create value when they come from sites with a similar theme and that website has good perceived traffic. Backlinks are often taken as a form of popularity rating for a website or a page. Backlinks are used quite extensively in ranking pages for popularity, and are abused quite extensively, to create a sense of popularity ie PR.
- PR
Page rank, the yardstick to determine the popularity of a link. It seems to be exploited extensively. However it appears to be the standard used by major Search Engines like Google.