When my website went live in October of 2002, I asked the same question any businessperson would ask: how can I get lots and lots of hits?
Because in my mind:
hits = good website = success = sweet moolah
Not really. In fact, Internet guru Tom Antion once said that H.I.T.S stands for "How Idiots Track Sales."
When I first heard that, I laughed and cried at the same time. Here's why...
My website gets a lot of hits. At least, I think it's a lot. Honestly, I don't know what "a lot" means. But for a few years now, it's been roughly 8,000 a day. (1,500 unique users.) And since I recently got sucked into the delicious vortex of MySpace, I now get about 18,000 hits a day (2,000 unique users.)
The reason I get so many hits is because:
1) I publish weekly articles
2) I've done hundreds of interviews
3) I have thousands of outgoing and incoming links
4) I've been featured in hundreds of media outlets
5) I publish two blogs daily
...blah blah blah. Who cares, right? I guess what's more important is: are those hits converting?
The answer: it took a while, but yes.
(And "converting" probably means something different to every businessperson.)
I guess the point I'm trying to make is: "hits" is a deceptive word.
On the other hand, lots and lots of hits might not lead to success and/or sweet moolah, but they certainly help.
LET ME ASK YA THIS...
What do "hits" mean to you?
* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com
Friday, May 05, 2006
Do website hits actually mean anything?
4:46 AM
7 comments
7 comments:
And Scott, what does "converting" mean to you? More speaking engagements? More book sales? More opportunities? Just wondering....
To me, how the hits convert:
Example:
Each day you have XX unique visitors.
Track how many unique visitors goes to the shopping cart to purchase marketing materials from you - A , or
If you have a sales enquiry form, track how many unique visitors successfully submitted the form.
Finally, you more or less know how much percentage becomes your customer based on these figures. :)
Google Analytics is one example which can track these kind of convertion.
Cheers!
p.s. I finally got your books, Scott. Thank you.
As a web designer, I find hits to be more or less an interesting but ultimately useless stat.
Unique visitors is a much more noteworthy stat, but more difficult to calculate. Your conversion per unique visitors is where it's at.
I like to think of your website as a big front porch. It makes you approachable. If that is your goal then you can measure success by how many people you build a relationship with.
(PS- technically a hit is registered any time someone rolls over a link on you site, so one person can account for 1 or 100 hits depending on how much or little they browse your page. When I check my stats I look to see how long people are staying and what pages they are reading.)
cnntkHello
I really enjoy reading your blog. If i were you i would go to http://www.autosurfmonster.com and submit this blog for free so thousands of others can see it.. well i look forward to all the updates. thanks again.
Jessica
webmaster at www.noexcusebudget.com says every extra bit of info. my site can give me about my visitors helps.... so maybe hits are not the be all, but it's still nice to know!
Hi Scott
Was just googling for the very same question, am still not clear on what hits means and what unique visitors mean. My website receives 200,000 hits in a month and 3000 unique visitors. Does this mean, that I actually get 200,000 people who have visited my website via whatever method of advertising I have used, which is google, facebook, email campaigns, craigslist, gumtree, etc, etc?
My website is www.aperfectevent4u.com.au I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this..thanks!!
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