Tuesday 14 April 2009

Statistics, oh statistics...

Despite being married to an accountant I'm not great at maths. However, the day I took my 'O' level maths oh so many years ago (25?) my mother picked up a Nun (or rather, gave her a lift as we say here in England - there being a convent nearby and the Nun wanting to get somewhere - no, I really can't think she might have been hitchhiking?! so I think I recall my mother was just being polite and, stopping gently on the little deserted country lane wound down the window and asked her if she'd mind hopping in. Perhaps her robes looked like they would impede her progress swishing in godly manner along down the lane. Besides there was no footpath (yes, I did go to school in the English countryside and not London!) On hearing I had an exam that morning the round-faced kindly 'Mother' said: "I'll pray for you, daughter". My own mother jokes that's the only reason I passed the exam with a decent grade to boot.

So, please explain to me someone, the difference between Visits and Page views on the sitemeter counter gadget a friend suggested I put on my site (not sure what I complied for, if not to become paranoid and/or obsessive?!) Since I installed it yesterday at midday I've had 678 visits and 813 page views. Not really convinced... or sure what it all means, as if folks are visiting they're not leaving any comments! Anyone care to explain? any comments to clarify the difference and what exactly is being tallied would be much appreciated!!

3 comments:

  1. I would expect "visits" means "the number of times someone requested this page". "Page Views" probably means "the number of times this page finished loading".

    You should be able to experiment yourself. Put a large image in a post, then load your blog page. Press your stop button before the page loads.

    I'd expect your "visits" to have increased by one, and your "page views" to have stayed the same.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I found an article on about.com that talks about web page views and visitors. Web analytics Hope it helps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I use sitemeter as well. So far today I visited your site once and will probably view a couple pages while I'm here. So your tally for me spo far should show 1 visit and 2 pages (I think once I submit this comment it will show one more page). If I close out of the site and come back, it would count my return as a new visit. I've noticed a lot of bloggers mentioning the lack of comments even though their visit numbers are quite high.

    ReplyDelete