What is a "large" website?

Is it all in the eye of the beholder or are there stats:)

[clearvision]

Sometimes I see posts saying " I have a large website" or " I have a small website"

This may sound like a simple question and without being to flip, could someone give me some stats to know what is considered a "large" or "medium" sized site by traffic & bandwidth standards.

I feel like I have been in a bubble because most of my focus has been on quality content and the site has grown considerably (to my standards:).

Thanks for your help!

[vkaryl]

Hmmm. Well, I tend to think it's fairly subjective. I have a "small" site or so, none of which exceed 20 distinct pages. I have a "large" site or so, which have upwards of a hundred pages each. I have two "huge" sites, both of which exceed 500 pages.

To me, it's all relative to the amount of time I have to spend on them when it's time to update, add content, tweak links, etc. Even with includes, the largest site takes me several days (not full-time though) to update.

I'm willing to bet that my largest site is "tiny" compared to many out there....

[sonjay]

It's all in your perspective. I used to manage a large corporate size -- with over 4,000 distinct html pages, plus thousands more files of images, scripts, etc. I considered that "large." (Actually, I considered it *huge*!)

Now I'm independent, with several dozen clients, mostly small businesses. The largest site I have now is in the neighborhood of maybe 150 to 200 pages, but most of my sites are around 20-30 pages or less. Now I consider a 50-page site "large."

[webtress]

clearvision, in regards to

considered a "large" or "medium" sized site by traffic & bandwidth standards

one can have a small site say under 50 pages that relates to local resturants and it can pull more traffic than a large site with 200+ pages discussing the same topic if it has the right textual keyword content that is need for higher rankings it would received more visitors. The amount of bandwidth will be determined by the amount of visitors to these pages. So you could have less pages and use more bandwith than the site with more pages.

focus has been on quality content and the site has grown considerably

your focus is in the right place. If the cost of bandwidth is more than you had expected then your probably doing a good job. You may just want to look into a new hosting company where you can get more bandwidth for your money.

[clearvision]

I see...I think :)

Would a large website be gauged by the number of pages...or the amount of traffic it receives?

I am looking for a new server and the current sight transfers 750mb-ish /day translated out...that would be 24G / month.

When I told one company these stats they said it was a "small" site...the next company told me it was "large" and thought I should get a dedicated server instead of shared hosting....so, who is right?

The site itself has over 400 pages and is quite popular for its niche with the search engines...but without a measure to compare it to they are just numbers without meaning. Any more insight? Thanks for your patience :)

[clearvision]

Hi Webtress,

I was just posting my reply and didn't get to read yours until just now!

As you read my challenge is I guess in understanding what my numbers mean :) is 24g per month large or small?

[iamlost]

Website size usually means the number of pages available for viewing.

The bandwidth required for a website is a function of three (3) things:

1. the number of visitors per period (usually per month).
   
2. the average number of page views per visitor.
   
3. the average page size.
   

Note that number of actual pages is not a direct factor.

Calculation:
number of visitors per month * average page views * average page size

Example:
You expect an average of 30,000 visitors per month each viewing an average of 3 pages and your average page is 20 KB:
30,000 * 3 * 20 = 1,800,000 KB = 1.83 MB

Your stated bandwidth exceeds 13,000 times the example.

Note: if your site allows downloads (mp3, graphics, etc.) the number and average size of file downloads must be added. Based on an average file size of 100KB you could have over 250,000 file downloads for 24 GB bandwidth per month.

Not a small (bandwidth) site!

Standards of (number of pages) size can vary by type of sites (the numbers are my personal ratings system as I have not (yet) found another I liked):

1. Brochure site:
   
   • small: 1-page.
     
   • medium: 2 to 5-pages.
     
   • large: 6 to 10-pages.
     
   
   
2. Hobby site:
   
   • small: under 10-pages.
     
   • medium: 10 to 50-pages.
     
   • large: 51 to 100-pages.
     
   • huge: over 100-pages.
     
   
   
3. Business site:
   
   • small: under 50-pages.
     
   • medium: 50 to 100-pages.
     
   • large: 101 to 500-pages.
     
   • huge: over 500-pages.
     
   
   
4. information (non-government) site:
   
   • small: under 100-pages.
     
   • medium: 10 to 500-pages.
     
   • large: 501 to 1000-pages.
     
   • huge: over 1000-pages.
     
   
   
5. information (government) site:
   
   • small: under 500-pages.
     
   • medium: 500 to 1000-pages.
     
   • large: 1001 to 5000-pages.
     
   • huge: over 5000-pages.
     
   
   
6. e-commerce site:
   
   • small: under 1000-pages.
     
   • medium: 1000 to 5000-pages.
     
   • large: 5001 to 10000-pages.
     
   • huge: over 10000-pages.
     
   
   

[webtress]

clearvision, I think "iamlost" gave a execelent example and that should help clear things up.

[clearvision]

Thank you Iamlost for posting such detailed information! Your descriptions make perfect sense and I can see how people with varying web models can still use the word "large" as a descriptor.

It also answered my question perfectly and confirmed my hopes...I can now say, "I have a large information website" and know why...not just a hunch anymore!

Thanks again for your post, I am sure there are others out there that will find your insight helpful!