Since the dawn of the web and the birth of web analytics, some webmasters have reported back to their respective businesses, the number ‘hits’ their websites were getting, as a measurement of success.
I still see some businesses reporting ‘hits’ as a measure of success today, especially SMEs, where they have had little exposure to Web Analytics or little education about it. This was highlighted to me very recently and inspiration for this blog post came from a headline that caught my eye in a local business magazine, that found its way to my desk a few weeks back.
The headline read: -
200,000-plus hits on our website!
Every time I see ‘hits’ reported as a measure of success, it makes me both smile and cringe at the same time. I think over time, some people have misinterpreted this metric ‘hits’ to mean the number of visitors a website has had over a particular period of time. This is a very inaccurate interpretation and can give a false sense that a website is performing well, when someone is shown a graph plotting ‘hits’, which over time goes up to the right.
So why do I think ‘hits’ is a stupid metric for measuring success?
A ‘hit’ is simply a request to a web server for web page content. Every element that makes up that web page is served by the web server and as a result an individual ‘hit’ is recorded against each element requested. This includes the web page itself, any images, style sheets, JavaScript code, bits of Flash and anything else that forms part of that web page.
Therefore, every time a web page is requested by a browser, a series of requests are recorded in the server log files, which are commonly referred to as ‘hits’ (illustrated below). As a result, a single visit to a website could contain multiple page views and each page view has multiple ‘hits’.
Example of some web server log files (click to enlarge)
This means that if you make any changes to your website, adding an additional style sheet for example, then measuring ‘hits’ will make it impossible to do any comparisons of old vs. new. As using an additional style sheet in your new website design means each web page requested also makes an extra request for the additional style sheet and therefore records an additional ‘hit’, making any meaningful comparisons impossible.
It also means that if you are tasked with increasing ‘hits’ to a website you simply need to add more images to the web page! Anyone who needs some help with that, let me know as I charge a very reasonable rate! 
In all seriousness though, these are the exact reasons why ‘hits’ is a dumb and pointless metric for measuring success and in this context, should be avoided like the plague!
A move from page views to page events
Visitors and page views tend to be the standard metrics used for measuring a website’s growth performance over time. However, with the increasing use of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) based on Flash or AJAX for example, measuring traditional page views has effectively gone out the window.
If you have ever visited a Flash based website, then you may have noticed that the URL stays static as you browse the website. Requests may still being made to the web server for content, but no new URLs are loaded. As a result, page views may not automatically appear within the log files.
You therefore need to think about tracking visitor interactions instead, often referred to as event based tracking. An interaction could be anything that you define, for example it could be a request for a ‘page’ or content, or you could take this a step further and track visitor interactions with a form. Which fields do they fill in? Which field do they take longer to fill in? which field do visitors bail on?
A great example of a Flash application is the BP Carbon Calculator. By tracking interactions, BP could see how visitors are using the application. Providing BP with information, for example, on; Which check boxes are being toggled? Which options are being selected from a drop down? Or how many people click the next button?
Tracking web page interactions can provide you with some really useful insights into how visitors are using your website, helping you streamline your website and is certainly worth further investigation.
Measuring online versus offline
Taking this notion of event based tracking further, how does online vs. offline differ?
Well the great thing about online, when compared with offline is that you can track virtually anything and everything!
Take the example of an organisation sending out a seasonal product brochure in the post… They might be able to track the number of calls they receive from the brochure or attribute sales to that brochure with the aid of promotional codes, but what they can in terms of interactions with that brochure is quite limited.
Where as online, with the help of web analytics and event based tracking, a business could track which individual web pages were viewed or individual interactions within a web page. e.g. which field within a web form caused them to bail? Or even how that visitor interacted with a flash video - did they watch it all the way through to the end?
With event based tracking, the possibilities for tracking and measuring are almost endless.
Conversion Rate - a better measurement of success
There are almost a limitless number of metrics, which a business can use to measure how successful a website is over a period of time. Unique visitors will give you a good indication as to how your website is growing over time, but anyone can drive more visitors to a website.
The key is obviously driving more relevant visitors, who ultimately do something that you want them to do… They convert!
Woohoo!!
A conversion could be a sign up for a newsletter, a purchase online or perhaps any visitor who looks at your ‘contact us’ page. The point is that a conversion (referred to as “Goals” in Google Analytics) can be anything you define as a useful and desired action on your website and is completely customisable to each business.
Therefore, number of conversions over time is a useful metric to measure your website’s success. Better yet, looking at your conversions or conversion rate by channel or marketing campaign. This way you can then see which campaigns are converting more visitors, allowing you to make decisions on which campaigns are working best for you and which ones need more of your attention.
You could take this a step further still, and see how each element of your campaign is converting, providing their are multiple variables. For example, take a Google PPC search campaign… you could investigate the conversion rates for each of your Google paid keywords and decide which ones are worth bidding on (illustrated below).
Sample Google paid keywords report (click to enlarge)
Another example might be measuring the effectiveness of banner creative or landing pages. Its always a good idea to test different creative and landing pages to see which type converts at a higher rate, because over time, one creative or landing page will always out perform another. That way, you can then divert campaign traffic to the highest converting landing page, or show visitors the most effective banner creative.
Summary
In summary, the metrics available to you for measuring success are virtually endless and should be unique to your individual business. However, number of unique visitors or number of conversions are usually a safe starting point for measuring success and they make much more sense than measuring the number of ‘hits’!
Final thought of the day… ‘Hits’ is a pointless metric for measuring success, so please avoid it!
What to learn more about Web Analytics metrics? - The Web Analytics Association have published a nice document detailing some standard Web Analytics Definitions for metrics… well worth a read!
What are your views? Have I missed anything? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you know anyone in your business reporting ‘Hits’? Please let me know by adding a comment… 
June 12th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
You are right. Hits as a main metric is not enough and “visits” are a bit vague as you don’t know how long visitors stay on your page.
This is why Nielsen/NetRatings research, announced that it added “Total Minutes” to its syndicated Internet audience measurement service.
Take a look at Pagealizer We try to give you more relevant statistics based on time spent on page and scroll distance.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I’m not going to *defend* hits, but I think you’re blowing it off a bit too quickly. For a small web site, and one that is using a page tag-based solution, “hits” is a poor word to use, but it’s basically “page views.” And, if you’re looking for a raw sense of “is anyone coming to my site?” it’s not a bad place to start. You could have a conversion rate of 100%…and you’re still in bad shape if that’s converting 1 visitor…and it’s your mother-in-law!
All of your other points are totally valid, and this is a good overview of the possibilities with web analytics. But, the key is to start with where you are, make sure you have clear objectives for your web site, and pick measures that map to those objectives.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Hi Tim,
I guess I am referring to ‘hits’ as a poor metric, in the traditional context of requests to a web sever, recorded in the log files. In my experience, there are still businesses reporting on ‘hits’ in the true sense of the word (e.g. requests to a web server for page elements). But I think this is often an educational issue. The magazine article I referenced in my post went on to report individual page views and visits, so in this example, we can be sure that the magazine has gone with hits for its headline as it was the largest number, but i feel that this is misleading and I wonder how many businesses still don’t have a proper understanding of this metric.
You are right though, when ‘hits’ are referring to real page views and not requests to the web server for web page elements, then they are a perfectly valid and useful metric and I wholeheartedly subscribe to page views as a valid metric for measuring success.
Regarding conversion rates, I guess I should have made the point that you need a degree of statistical significance to base decisions on and you need to have a good understanding of your business and what your data is telling you. A 100% conversion rate with one conversion from your mother-in-law certainly doesn’t leave you in good shape, but if you have enough data for a campaign, then conversion rate can be a great metric. Gaining a good understanding of your web data though is not always easy as there can certainly be a resource issue or perhaps a skill shortage issue within a lot of organisations.
But I think you summed it up well with “the key is to start with where you are, make sure you have clear objectives for your web site, and pick measures that map to those objectives.”
Thanks!
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
[...] hits are a terrible way to measure web traffic. You can see a more detailed explanation of why here. Ask yourself what it is you really want to know. It’s probably something along the lines [...]