Do you know the difference? Probably not. Most folks use “hits” for everything. There is a difference.

Let’s take a look at what you should know so that you can walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk.

Hits

First off, hits are useless. If someone tries to sell you an ad based on hits, run away. They’re either clueless or taking advantage of you.

Technically, a hit is the server’s response to a request. That sounds fine, until you realize that a single web page is made up of multiple pictures, graphics and other items – all of which are considered separate hits. So, as an example, when you visit the www.forge3.com home page, it generates 30+ hits. Needless to say, this number is useless for most of us. So, ignore it.

Visitors (usually called Uniques or Unique Visitors)

This is a better measure of activity. A visitor is counted when someone comes to a website at least once. If they come back later in the day, he/she is still only counted as one visitor.

For example, let’s say that we’re looking at monthly visitors, and I visit your website today. That’s counted as a visit. Then, let’s say that I come back the next week. This is still counted as a single visitor for the month.

So, if you’re buying an ad based on unique visitors, you’ll want to know how many visitors will see the ad and over what period of time.

TIP: Keep in mind that visitors are estimated. Why? Because most of us use multiple computers, phones, and gadgets to access the Internet. If I visit your website from my phone, and then again from my computer and laptop, this is counted as three separate unique visitors. This is because the website can’t tell that you are you - so it just counts each device as a separate visitor.

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