Hits vs. Visits - what's the difference?

Very confused Dumb_guy.

[Dumb_guy]

My log looks like this today:

Hits per Day: Ave.-10835 Max.-13623
Visits per Day: Ave.- 374 Max.- 446.

So what's the difference between the hit and visits?

[Bradley]

With 374 visits and 10,835 hits - that means (for the most part) that your 374 visitors generated 28.97 hits each (10,835 / 374 = 28.97)

Keep in mind, a "hit" is defined as the download of a file. Therefore, on your homepage, if you have 9 graphics on that page, then just visiting that one page will generate 10 hits (9 graphics and the HTML page)

To cut to the chase, hits mean nothing. Its all about the number of visitors and pageviews.

[edited by: Bradley at 4:19 am (utc) on May 22, 2003]

[Dumb_guy]

Thanks, Bradley. Dumb_guy is illuminated.