Web traffic

From ArticleWorld

Web traffic represents the amount of data sent and received by a website's visitors. It depends on several factors, like the number of visitors, the size of the visited pages or objects and so on. Webmasters should continuously monitor it to see what parts of the website are more popular or whether the bandwidth demands must be recalculated.

In general, the more, the better, but this is not always the case. For example, cross-linking images means an extra traffic that is not useful to the website itself.

Websites with high traffic may take some profit, by renting advertising space to other companies.

Measuring traffic

Measuring website traffic should take several things into account. At the base is the idea of hit: each time a file is requested, a hit takes place. Hits apply to any kind of file, unlike page views, which apply only to an actual page.

In general, traffic statistics include:

• Number of visitors
• Average number of page views per visitor. This is used because a large number here suggests that users go deep into a website's structure, possibly because the website is very popular, but also possibly due to poor design that makes finding relevant information harder.
• Average visit duration and average page duration.
• Most viewed pages. The most viewed entry pages may suggest what pages are most appealing to a visitor, while the most viewed exit pages may suggest what pages contain broken links or poor information.
• The referrer, tracking the source link from which the visitor came, and domain class, useful to see what are the geographical areas where the website is most appealing.

Controlling traffic

A high traffic is not always to be desired. When needed, website traffic can be restricted, either by restricting the bandwidth (although this is not recommended since it decreases the performance) or by restricting certain areas, making them available only to some users.

Increasing the traffic is another problem. One option is to improve the web search ranking by applying search engine optimization techniques. Website promotion can also be achieved by cross-linking, buying advertising space (online and offline), but also through less orthodox techniques like spam.