Internet Myth #4:
I Need Lots of Hits on My Website

It seems nearly everyone these days is concerned with how many "hits" their Websites are getting. They believe that "lots of hits" should mean "lots of business". Not so.

There are two kinds of hits: worthless hits or valuable hits... and the difference is critical.

First, a definition of what a hit is. A "hit" is defined as "The access of a file by a user on a server". A visitor to your web page only once may count as only one or as dozens of hits, depending on how many graphics or other elements there are on your page.

Hits are not a good way of measuring the usage of a Website, but are often mentioned in conversation as being synonymous with Website traffic or popularity.

A better way to measure the activity on your Website is to measure by unique visitors, page counts or other more refined methods.

For the sake of simplicity I'll use the word "hits" here to explain the differences in page activity. Here are the two kinds of hits I want to bring to your attention:

• Useless hits - Visitors hit your page by accident and don't know what your site is about, or visitors who come to your site and leave immediately. Your Meta Tags may have led them to your FARM equipment site, when all they want to do is have something FRAMED. All that has happened is that your server has served up pages and graphics, and spent some of your valuable resources.

• Useful hits - Visitors who have heard about your business and are seeking you out, visitors who have been referred to your site, visitors who stay at your site and look around, visitors who buy from your site, visitors who interact with your site (email you, sign up for your email list, etc.) visitors who come back to your site, or who link to your site or tell others. These "hits" are the lifeblood of the Internet, and the measure of success.

Hits in and of themselves are nearly meaningless. Only hits that lead to results are of true value. Getting meaningful or useful traffic onto your Website requires a complex group of properly designed and coordinated activities.

Alex Johnson does Internet Consulting and Strategies for businesses. In addition to his business, AJConsulting.com, he writes and speaks about Internet topics. His business specializes in Internet Promotion and Internet Business Profiling.

Alex can be reached at AlexJohnson@AJConsulting.com

Phone 603-647-4190