Web metrics conflating hits, page views, and uniques produce inflated traffic claims
Evidence
This confusion stemmed in part from the fact that Web site viewership is measured in three different ways: hits, page views, and unique visitors. Technically, a hit refers to the access of any file on a Web page, so that a page with five images and two audio files would count as seven hits. Today, experts compare single page views, rather than hits, but even page views don’t reveal how many people visit a site in a day. For this we need access to a camgirl’s referrer logs, which track site visitors individually. These ‘uniques’ are the best indicators of Web viewership, but content providers tend to guard such figures closely. Without them it is impossible to determine whether a site’s popularity reflects occasional vists from a broad viewership or intense attention from a small but obsessive fan base. — Theresa M. Senft, Camgirls, 187
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies the hit-versus-page-view-versus-unique-visitor distinction that underlies all web-traffic disputes.
- XREF: connects to: Measurable web metrics favored low-quality traffic over prestige advertising — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 196; Social media metrics reduce complex relationships to visible status rankings; Social media metrics convert audience size into a comparable measure of personal status — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 245 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Measurable web metrics favored low-quality traffic over prestige advertising
#expands(0.85) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 196 - Social media metrics reduce complex relationships to visible status rankings
#expands(0.80) - Social media metrics convert audience size into a comparable measure of personal status
#expands(0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 245 - Academic metrics mirror social media influence metrics
#corroborates(0.72) — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, 619