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This week’s feature
OK; So Who Visits The Site?
The idea of the “always in touch” international community has fascinated me for some time and the Internet illustrates the potential like nothing else. Since working for a US company back in 1995, I have made friends across the world and have been able to maintain contact with many of them by virtue of the miracles that are email, mobile phones, etc.
Whilst many of my site visitors are now based abroad, I would like to think that there are a number of local visitors, too. I would also be pleased to hear from anyone who would like to contribute anything they feel is relevant, be it photos or articles. Feel free to get in touch via any of the email links dotted about the site.So, where do all these people come from? From all over the world, actually. When I transferred the domain name to Claranet in March 2002, one of the provider’s features offered is usage statistics. This could be a powerful tool but I use it merely to find how many visitors I get and from what country.
“Hits” vs “Visits”
The analysis software differentiates “hits” from “visits”. A “hit” is any request for information that matches what is on the site. A “visit” is when the site has actually been downloaded to a remote PC. To illustrate this, let’s say you type “Herne Bay” in a search engine. The search engine will do it’s stuff and look for sites with content that matches the request. In it’s search, it may come across www.hbay.co.uk. Well, I hope it would, anyway. Assuming it does, then Claranet records that request as a “hit”. All the search engine has done is read the “index.htm” page (the default opening page for all web sites) and looked for matching words in the and <META> tag lines at the start of the code. To improve my chances of a search engine finding and, more importantly (for me) displaying this site as a possible match, all the pages on the site include “Herne Bay” and “Whitstable” in the <TITLE> tag. I also include them in the <META> tag, along with a number of other words I think may be relevant.<br /> But enough of the theory. Back to business. This first table shows the numbers of hits and actual visitors since March 2002 (when the statistics started), up to and including 31 December 2004.</p>
| Total hits to date: | 1,067,098 | December visits: | 3547 | Total visits to date1: | 75023 |
| Ave daily hit count: | 1239 | Ave daily visit count: | 114 |
| Max daily hit count: | 2059 | Max daily visit count: | 253 |
The country count continues to rise steadily. I had visitors from Latvia, Morocco and Slovakia for the first time in 2005, making the new country count 73. Having commented on wanting to reach 60 some time back, I guess the new target has to be 100.
Hits from “US commercial” sources still tend to dominate the hit count each month, standing at 38% of the January hits. The UK remains in second place, ahead of the anonymous “Network” hits. Former Eastern Bloc countries continue to visit, which is nice. I also get mail from local people, which is equally pleasing. I do get out a bit more now but having those local, national and international contacts is quite rewarding. Thanks especially to those who have become regular correspondents, either to the site or just to me.