Measuring unique visitors
There is a big problem with all internet statistics packages, and that is understanding the visitors or unique visitors numbers. Statistics packages never give an entirely accurate number for this, so in order for you to be able to make any judgements based on this, you need to understand the problem, and then understand how your particular statistics package is measuring this.
One computer with many users or one user using many computers?
The first problem is that most statistics package make the assumption that a user is a specific browser (i.e. internet explorer or firefox) accessing the website. This assumption is made as it is the one of the few things that can be measured. It does not know if this computer is in a public setting such as a university of library and therefore many different people may be accessing your website, but it would register as one unique visitor returning many times.
The other problem happens if one person looks at your website from their home computer, then looks at it again further on a shared computer. This would register as two unique visitors, rather than one visitor returning.
The third problem is that statistics packages normally rely on cookies. These are tiny bits of information that is saved to a users browser, allowing the system to recognise them again. Users are able to delete cookies, and many do on a regular basis. This means the next time they come to your site, they will be registered as a new user again.
Why bother measuring unique visits at all then?
If the information is so inaccurate, you may wonder why it is worth bothering to record it at all. The answer is that it can be very useful for showing user patterns. It will give you and idea as to whether the amount of traffic you are getting is generally going up or down, and whether people are likely to return to your site. As long as you understand what you are measuring, and the limitations of this, the information will still be useful, however, if you use the actual figures as facts, then you may be following a red herring.
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