The difference between hits, visitors, visits, and page views

Summary

In this article you will find discussion and technical definitions of:

Hits, visitors and page views
Unique visitors
New and returning visitors

And information about:

Why hits are not a good way to measure traffic
The difference between server hits & hit counters
Tracking unique visitors
The difference between new & returning visitors

Hits, visitors, visits, page views: what are the differences?

Technical definition of a hit

each file sent to a browser by a web server is an individual hit.

Technical definition of a page view

a page view is each time a visitor views a webpage on your site, irrespective of how many hits are generated. Pages are comprised of files. Every image in a page is a separate file. When a visitor looks at a page (i.e. a page view), they may see numerous images, graphics, pictures etc. and generate multiple hits.

For example, if you have a page with 10 pictures, then a request to a server to view that page generates 11 hits (10 for the pictures, and one for the html file). A page view can contain hundreds of hits. This is the reason that we measure page views and not hits.

Hits are not a reliable way to measure website traffic.

Additionally, there is a high potential for confusion here, because there are two types of 'hits'. The hits we are discussing in this article are the hits recorded by log files, and interpreted by log analysis. A second type of 'hits' are counted and displayed by a simple hit counter. Hit counters record one hit for every time a webpage is viewed, also problematic because it does not distinguish unique visitors.
Here is an article discussing hit counters.

Technical definition of a visit

a visit happens when someone or something (robot) visits your site. It consists of one or more page views/ hits. One visitor can have many visits to your site.

Technical definition of a visitor

a visitor is the browser of a person who accepts a cookie. Opentracker tracks cookies through a javascript. By this definition, a visitor is a human being, and their actions are 'human' events, because only humans use javascript to navigate the internet. If a cookie is not accepted, then we use IP numbers to track visitors.

Opentracker measures unique visitors, which we track over long periods of time by giving them a cookie, this cookie is unique to their browser. We have found that cookies are often more reliable over the long term, as many servers re-assign IP addresses on a regular basis. IP usage patterns are changing. AOL, for example, has recently implemented a rotating IP address technology, to stop log files from tracking their members' search term queries.

How reliable are cookies when tracking unique visitors? Unless the user deletes their cookies continuously, they will be measured as the same visitor with each visit.

Strictly speaking, “one visitor” means “one person” based on the definitions given above. So that if someone continuously visits your site over long periods of time, they will be recorded only as one visitor.

How does Opentracker distinguish between new and returning visitors?

A returning visitor is a visitor who visits your site with a 24 hour period in between. It's very strict.
Secondly, we measure visits, a visit is a visitor’s click-stream broken by a ten minute period, (minimum of ten minutes). So you have a cup of coffee, and return to the site after ten minutes, this will be a second visit. Say you go to bed, and you return to the site 24 hours later; you will be a returning visitor.