Memphis Marketing and Advertising

Wading through the search engine world can be very confusing. Companies promise more hits to your site, which sounds wonderful but do you have a firm grasp on what a hit actually is? Have you ever looked at stats for a website and wondered how to decipher the code before you? Unfamiliar jargon can leave you confused and vulnerable to the scams that are present throughout the internet marketing world. Before you dive into this field, take a look at the following info. It could save you some embarrassment and maybe even lots of money.

Hit- An http request made to your server. Many times hits are confused with impressions and that is very incorrect. Viewing one page can actually sometimes result in multiple hits to your site. Every time a request is made for an image or Javascript file, it could be counted as a hit.

Impression- A page view. An impression occurs when someone actually views an html page of your site.

Unique- A page view made by a unique individual in a 24 hour period. This is calculated by a computer’s IP address. A good way to measure unique visits is to use a system utilizing IP address, browser or user agent, and operating system.

Referrer- A page that links to your site. Could also be a search engine result that displayed your site.

User Agent- Refers to the software used to access a site. Many times this is browser like Internet Explorer but it can also refer to a PHP script or a search engine spider like GoogleBot.

Also in your analysis, you should be able to see locations and times that people visited your site. This can be useful for tailoring content towards specific groups. If people are visiting your site during work hours and from corporate networks, then you can assume that your info is tailored towards a working clientele. More than that, you can see how far into your site people searched and what pages they visited the most. All of this info is geared to help you with your marketing on your site. If you sell advertising on your website, then this tool is critical. Of course, at Herrington Marketing, we provide this service as part of our Search Engine diagnostics and SEO services.

For more info on this subject visit www.sitepoint.com