Every time a person opens any web browser, he finds millions of websites listing there, appealing to him to click upon them once. From education to entertainment and news to technical, there is no definite count for these websites. Each day, these websites fight to emerge as the most popular one and to become the one which people like to knock again and again.
But to let this happen, the people who run these websites should be able to record and evaluate people’s responses towards their website. Hits and Visits are two such mediums that enable the website owner to know exactly how his website is doing. But for a much deeper analysis, a distinction should be made between these two.
Hits vs Visits
The main difference between Hits and Visits is that the former denotes the number of elements that were clicked by the viewer while the latter denotes the number, a viewer opens the website. A visit can be like opening the door of a grocery store and going inside. While the Hit is every time, you touch something in the store. The actual popularity is counted by Visits, not by Hits.
A website contains several elements, such as the menu, the search bar, and the FAQ section, etc. When a person opens a website, he clicks upon a few of these sections. Each time he clicks upon a section, the website records a Hit. In other words, Hits are the total requests for downloading a physical file from a web page.
While a visit is said to be recorded when the person opens the website as a whole, either for the first time or after closing the website once. If the website reloads, then also a Visit is recorded. Visits are recorded irrespective of the number of Hits recorded; therefore, Visits are always lesser in number than Hits.
Comparison Table Between Hits and Visits
| Parameters of Comparison | Hits | Visits |
| Meaning | Every time an internet user clicks upon one or more pages embodied in a website; a Hit is recorded. | Visits are recorded when an internet user opens the website. |
| Uses | Used to advertise the popularity of the web page. | Used to actually evaluate the success rate of the website in a specific amount of time. |
| Effectiveness | Irrespective of the vast number, Hits are not as effective as Visits to evaluate the performance. | Visits are more efficient to measure the performance of the website. |
| Quantity | Hits are greater in number than Visits. | Visits are lesser in figures than Hits. |
| Nature | Hits are measured in the form of requested physical files. | Visits are measured in the form of opening the web page in a fresh manner. |
| Limitations | Hits do not have any limitations; they can be recorded multiple times in just one visit. | Visits have constraints. No matter how many pages one views on a webpage, it is still recorded as a single visit. |
What are Hits?
When a designer creates a website, it consists of multiple files such as a webpage, an image, or a Cascading Style Sheet, etc. In other words, certain elements exist on every website, but they vary in number. Certain examples of these elements are mentioned below:
- Menu
- FAQs
- Contact us
- About us
- Know More
- Search Bar
Every time a viewer clicks on any of these or other elements, the website records a Hit. Hits are the numbers denoting that how many times physical resources were requested from the webpage.
A website can record multiple Hits during just one visit. In earlier times, the number of Hits was used to determine the popularity of the website, but today they are not much relevant in measuring the results.
These days websites use Hits either to sort out some technical equations in their analytics or to boast about their success rates. Suppose a website claims that they recorded, let’s say, 5 million Hits in one year. In actual terms, this number is deceiving as it does not tell who were the people contributing to the popularity of the webpage.
What are Visits?
Visits on a webpage are produced each time when a person clicks on the webpage. What we mean by Visits is that how many times a viewer clicks upon the whole webpage at once. A visit is counted when the viewer opens the webpage on his device after completely closing it or after coming back from another website.
For Example, A viewer visits website A once in the morning and then again at night. In the second time, he first opens website A and then opens website B and then again navigates back to website A. This will amount to two Visits to website A and one Visit to website B.
No matter how many times a user clicks on the elements given on a website, it will still be counted as one single visit only.
Main Differences Between Hits and Visits
- Hits are counted when a user clicks on the elements given on a webpage, while Visits are counted when the user opens the webpage.
- Hits are usually greater in number than the Visits.
- Hits are not the accurate measurement as to how the website is performing, while Visits are the authentic parameter upon which a website’s success is measured.
- Hits are a request to access physical files on a website, and Visits are the request to access the webpage at once.
- Hits are recorded every time a person views one or more pages from a website, whereas Visits are counted for one time only irrespective of the pages opened.
Conclusion
In any plan, evaluation is more important than just execution. In other words, if one wants to see how the planned structure for a specific thing is working, he needs to pay attention to the results. Analyzing these results is important to plan another strategy or improve the existing one.
Similar is the case with Hits and Visits on a website. It is important to track a record of these two to measure the website’s reach and popularity among the viewers.
But what is more crucial is that we mark a line of difference between Hits and Visits. While Hits are counted when a person clicks on any element present on the web page, Visits are marked only when the viewer opens the webpage. Hits are usually more in figures than the Visits. But the true success of the web page is measured in terms of the visits only because Hits can be deceiving.
References
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1277741.1277823
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3308558.3313606