website statistics

Glossary of Terms

  • All Time Unique Visitors - The number of visitors to the site that have visited the site for the first time ever.
  • Bookmark or Direct - This indicates a visitor that either came to your site via a bookmarked link (i.e. a favorite link) or typed in your site's URL in the browser's address field.  There is no referrer in this situation.
  • Bounces - The number of visitors that only accessed the associated page.
  • Bounce Rate - The percentage of visitors that access only one page. A high bounce rate for a page may indicate that improvements need to be made to the page to encourage visitors to continue on to other pages.
  • Campaign - A marketing term referring to a distinct marketing activity, such as direct mail, banner ads, pay-per-click ads, etc.
  • Click-Through - The act of a user clicking on a hyperlink that directs the user to another site.  This differs from a lead in that a unique user may produce many click-throughs, but is regarded as a single lead.
  • Column Editor - A configuration window that allows the user to customize how columns are displays on a report.
  • Cookie - A small piece of information a web site leaves on a visitor's computer when the visitor visits a site.  Cookies are used to remember information about a visitor to be used at a later time.
  • Conversion Rate - The percentage of orders generated per click-through.
  • Daily Unique Visitor - A visitor that comes to your site for the first time in a day. All subsequent visits during the day by the visitor are not considered unique.
  • Daily Uniques - The number of visitors to the site that have visited the site for the first time that day.
  • DMA - DMA - A Designated Market Area (DMA) is a group of counties in the United States that are covered by a specific group of television stations.  The term was coined by Nielsen Media Research, and they control the trademark on it.  There are 210 DMAs in the United States.  They can coincide with metropolitan areas, though rural regions with few significant population centers can also be designated as markets.  Conversely, very large metropolitan areas can sometimes be subdivided into multiple segments.  DMAs are widely used in ratings, which are compiled in the United States by Nielsen Media Research (television) and Arbitron (radio).

    Markets are identified by the largest city, which is usually located in the center.  However, geography and the fact that some metropolitan areas have large cities separated by some distance can make markets have unusual shapes and result in two, three, or more names being used to identify a single region (such as Wichita-Hutchinson, Kansas, Chico-Redding, California, Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York, and Harrisburg-Lebanon-Lancaster-York, Pennsylvania).
  • Domain - The address of a site, without the protocol, path, page or other items attached.  For example, microsoft.com is a domain, however, a full URL could be http://www.microsoft.com/stuff/page.html.
  • E.C.M.A. - The European Computer Manufacturers Association - the original creators of Javascript.
  • eCommerce - Electronic commerce.  Generally, purchases over the web.
  • E-Mail Alert - When certain traffic levels are reached for an account, we will automatically send out an e-mail to notify the account holder.  These alerts are up from the 'Edit Account' menu item.
  • Hit Count - The number of page views within a given time frame, which represents the number of times a visitor requests a page from your server. A hit count differs from a daily unique in that a visitor can register unlimited page views per day, but only one daily unique in one day, no matter how many pages are viewed.
  • HTML - In practical terms, HTML is a collection of platform-independent styles (indicated by markup tags) that define the various components of a World Wide Web document.  HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee while at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva.
  • I.P. Address - An internet protocol address.  This address is the main identifier of a node on the internet.  Every device connected to the internet must have one.  I.P. addresses are four numbers (0-255) put together separated by a dot.  For example 208.36.212.38
  • I.S.P. - Internet Service Provider.  A company that provides access to the internet.
  • Java - A common computer programming language developed by Sun Microsystems for use in web applications on the client and server.
  • Javascript - A common computer programming language developed by E.C.M.A. for use in web applications primarily on the client.  Javascript is relatively small and fast and is the most common language used for providing interactivity for web sites.
  • JScript - Microsoft's version of Javascript.  JScript runs under Internet Explorer.
  • Lead - A unique visitor that has come from a click-through from a campaign source.  A unique visitor is regarded as a lead only upon the first visit to your site.  A lead may click-through to your site multiple times, but is still considered a unique lead.
  • Link Popularity - The number of sites which link to a particular site.  Most search engines use link popularity as a factor in determining the search engine ranking of a web site.  The higher the link popularity, the higher the ranking. multiple times, but is still considered a unique lead.
  • Monthly Unique Visitor - A visitor that comes to your site for the first time during a calendar month. All subsequent visits during the month by the visitor are not considered a monthly unique visit.
  • Monthly Uniques - The number of visitors to the site that have visited the site for the first time that month.
  • New Visitors - The number of visitors to the site that have visited the site for the first time ever.
  • Order - A completed transaction by a user.  Orders are recorded when a special tracking script is executed on the order confirmation page.  This tracking script can be found on the Account / Get HTML Code menu item.
  • Page Views - See 'Hit Count'.
  • Palette - The number of colors supported on a computer screen.  Palettes are sometimes described by a number of bits in the number of supported colors.  For example, an eight-bit palette would support 256 colors (2 to the 8th).
  • Platform - See Operating System.
  • Protocol - An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two   devices. The main protocol for transmitting web pages is HTML.  The main protocol for transmitting e-mail is SMTP.
  • Operating System - A computer's primary program that runs the machine. For example, Windows 2000 and Mac OS X are operating systems.
  • Referrer - An URL a visitor originated from to get you your site that contains a link to your site.  If the visitor followed a link to reach one of your pages, the referrer will be the previous page.  In the case of a graphic on a page, the referrer will be the page containing the graphic.
  • Reloads - The total number of times your visitors have hit the "Refresh" or "Reload" browser button on a page
  • Repeat Visitors - A repeat vistor from a search engine. This column lists the number of repeat visitors from a search engine.
  • Revenue - The amount of money generated from orders.
  • Screen Resolution - The pixel width and height a computer's screen supports.  Typical values for this are 1024x768 and 800x600.
  • Unique Visitor - Refers to a daily unique vistor, which is a visitor that comes to your site for the first time in a day. All further visits during the day by the visitor are not considered unique.
  • URL - The Universal Resource Locator for an item on the internet, which includes the protocol, path, page and other items that fully identify an item.  For example: http://www.microsoft.com/stuff/page.html.  The full syntax is: protocol://host.domain[:port]/path/filename


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