What is the difference between hits and visitors?
 
It is a common mistake and in some cases, one which is used to misguide you into thinking that a website has more actual people looking on the web-site than there actually is.
 
There is a lot of terminologies that are quoted by the SEO Professional and sales people, trying to get you to place a listing on their website, and some unscrupulous people (and goodness knows, there's plenty of those around!) will be quite happy to take advantage of your ignorance of the terms they are using.
 
A clever (and dishonest) sales person or SEO specialist will proudly proclaim, "We will get you a thousand hits per day," trusting that you are unaware of what that actually means. A non-savvy website owner will think to himself, "Wow! A thousand visitors per day! That's a lot!"

But here's the trick. Let's say your home page has a header image, 5 menu images, a couple other pictures somewhere on the page, plus a style sheet that gets called by the page. That works out to a total of 10 hits per page: the page itself, the style sheet, and eight images.

Now let's suppose that your site is interesting and well designed, so every visitor who comes to it sticks around long enough to read five pages. That's a total of 50 hits per visitor.

So when the SEO company brags that they're going to get your 1000 hits per day, they really mean that they're going to give you 20 visitors per day.

All of a sudden their promises don't seem so golden, do they?
 
What is important

Simple... The number of visitors to the site, and to be pedantic, not just the visitor, but the  unique visitor.
 
What is a Hit, Visitor and the Unique Visitor?
 
A "hit" is counted every single time your website sends a page or graphic to a visitor. So, if one visitor looks at your homepage, that counts as one hit. If your homepage links to nine graphics - logos, photographs etc. - that counts as nine more "hits", giving a total of 10 hits overall. If your visitor leaves your site at this point without looking at any more pages, they have still registered 10 "hits" - this means that hits alone don't give you a very clear idea about how popular your website is. 

A visitor is every time a person (computer terminal) visits your website.
 
A unique visitor is how many times that person (computer terminal) visits your website.
 
Counters

The problem with using counters to track visitors is they are set up to measure page views, not unique visitors. Every time someone views your page, whether it's the first time or the twentieth, that visitor is counted. And if the page times out for some reason and they "Reload," it counts them again. And if someone just wants to have fun with your counter, they can exit and enter the site several times and are counted as a visitor each time... even if they never look at product.

So if you cannot count hits and you cannot use a counter, how do you track the traffic on your site?
 
Install visitor tracking code on your website, such as Google Analytics (see link in Resources at the bottom).
 
A web traffic analysis program will give you vital information about the traffic coming to your site, including where visitors are coming from, including which keywords they used, which search engines, what countries they are situated in, what paths your visitors are taking whilst on the website and which pages are the main exit points of your site... In fact it is full of all sorts of information... and for Google Analytics it is free.
 
This information is private and only available to you, the account owner. It is best to install the tracking code as soon as possible to start building history. If you are using Google Adwords (you pay to advertise your website) or Google Adsense (you place advertising on your website for profit) then you may already have access to Google Analytics.
 
How do I find out how many visitors a website gets if I am not the owner?
 
There are many cases where you may not be the website owner, but want to find out how well another website performs. However, since you do not own the site then you will not be able to see the full-blown traffic stats displayed by Google Analytics. Now it is time to do some investigation...
 
You may be curious about how much traffic any website generates, or you want to find out how well your competitor's website is performing.

Alexa is the top web information authority which is also free (see link in Resources at the bottom). Search for a website address and see how a website ranks compared to all other websites in the world. 

You can search for any website address that you are interested in finding its traffic rank. Alexa also provides other neat graphs and handy info. Although it does not show you the exact number of visitors, you can get a general idea of the website's performance. By comparing the traffic rank of your website to your competitor's website, you can estimate who gets more traffic. For example, YouTube.com ranks higher than Weather.com. Please note, although this is another great tools to use they are sometimes a bit behind with keywords and the amount of links, linked in.
 
THE BIKER GUIDE summing up...
 
We hope this article will help understand the difference between hits and visitors and hopefully to help you choose wisely where you place any advertising or your business on the World Wide Web!
 
If you would like any further advise of hits, visitors and anything else included in this information, do not hesitate to ask.
 
If you already knew all of the above, please accept our apologies and welcoming you to our world of seo geekness!

• Google Analytics www.google.com/analytics/
• Google Adwords www. Google.co.uk/ AdWords
• Alexa www.alexa.com

THE BIKER GUIDE
 
Bringing the Biker Community together!
 
www.thebikerguide.co.uk
 
 PS: Did you know when someone is quoting a site ranking of 1 that is 1 out of 10!

The Ducati Roadshow will again be travelling the length and breadth of the country to bring the Ducati UK demonstrator fleet to a venue near you in 2012.

The March edition of InMotion, the International magazine of the FIA – Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile – carries an article in which one of their Regions (1) is disappointed and brands as “Flawed” a report on the cost-benefit analysis of Anti-Lock Braking Systems for motorcycles.
 
We assume that the article refers to the Impact Assessment conducted for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee. This Impact Assessment looked at three measures contained in the European Commission’s proposal for a “Regulation on the approval and market surveillance of two- or three-wheeled vehicles and quadricycles”.
 
This was relevant to three compromise amendments to these measures which were submitted by MEPs to the IMCO Rapporteur, Mr van de Camp’s report in February 2012.
 
The FIA article appears to focus on the amendment concerning the mandatory fitting of Advanced Brake Systems (Combined Brake System (CBS) and/or Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS)), moving the ABS introduction date forward by a year and extending Advanced Brake Systems cover to Powered Two Wheelers of more than 50cc.
 
At Right To Ride, we agree with the FIA comment that, “the report is disappointing as the evidence of all key stakeholders, in particular users and suppliers, has not been included.”
 
As previously reported, ETRA the European Twowheel Retailers’ Association also commented on the shortcomings of the Impact Assessment, stating “the Committee rejected the conclusions of the impact assessment study. (…)  due to the limited amount of time to draft it and to the unclear mandate given to London Economics.”
 
ETRA’s press release continued with the comment, “The Conference of Presidents that followed the discussions, decided to give more time to London Economics to come up with a final and more thorough version of the study that, for instance, would take into consideration also the point of view of the parts suppliers as regards the cost of ABS.”
 
However, the tag line on the picture accompanying the FIA article is as follows:
 
“The FIA says that the EU failed to listen to suppliers such as Bosch, whose ABS 9 system is shown here.”
 
At Right To Ride, we wonder if this is a “veiled” promotion of one ABS manufacturer over others?  The reason we wonder, is because there appears to be a comprehensive and systematic lobby by one ABS manufacturer.
 
Our opinion at Right To Ride is that mandatory ABS will not be the panacea that will “save” the proportion of riders lives in collisions that is being reported by various sources, because there are just too many variables when considering the cause of motorcycle collisions.
 
It would appear that FIA have tempered their views and recognised that ABS on its own will not automatically enhance road safety.
 
Read the article at Right To Ride EU

IAM’s head of riding standards and advanced biker, Peter Rodger, is advising on getting back on the road after the winter.

• Check your bike’s fluid levels, brakes, lights, horn and coolant to make sure they’re all in good working order.
• Try starting your bike to check if the battery needs recharging.
• Check that the tyres have sufficient tread, no obvious damage, and are inflated to the right pressure. If you have taken any part of the bike apart over the winter check it is properly back together and that the nuts are all tightened appropriately.
• When you’ve given it the once over, switch on the engine and let your bike warm up before you go out on a ride.
• If you’re feeling particularly rusty, get on your motorcycle in a car park before taking it out on the road. The first ride should be about settling in gently – you need to get used to riding again.
• Gain confidence by having a few short, simple rides. Consider it a warm up for you and the bike; you've had time away, and both need to warm up again.
• Make sure your leathers and helmet are in good nick– don’t be tempted to take that first ride in street gear because you’re not planning on being out for long. 
 
Rodger said: “It’s that time of the year when many riders are taking their bikes out from winter storage. Check the bike before you begin this season’s rides, and make sure the rider is up to it as well.”

www.iam.org.uk

News that the Government is considering plans to privatise sections of the UK’s road network poses a real threat to the rural road network warns the 80,000 strong British Motorcyclists Federation.
 
Commenting on the plans, the BMF say that motorcyclists are far more aware of poorly maintained road surfaces than most car drivers and because private investors will only be interested in high returns from major trunk roads and motorways, the lesser used rural roads favoured by motorcyclists will suffer.

Privatisation will result in a two-tier roads system say the BMF with the most lucrative roads creamed off and the others becoming ‘Cinderella roads’ deprived of investment and left to deteriorate.

While many local authorities already contract out their roads maintenance, their maintenance programme is still under council control. Taking financial control away from them will mean that private profits will take precedence over service say the BMF.
 
Tolling will also be an issue for motorcyclists. The BMF have always maintained that motorcycles make little demands on road construction and inflict negligible damage on road surfaces. In fact say the BMF, motorcycles already incur a disproportionate amount of road tax for their size (£74 pa for a 600cc machine as against £95 for a five seater 1600cc car) and motorcyclists see any additional charges as being grossly unfair.

The UK needs a sound roads infrastructure but the road network is far too important to be privatised say the BMF.

www.bmf.co.uk