Statistics. Everyone talks about them, and boast of them, but what is the real deal? What counts most? Hits? Page views? Unique visitors? Bookmarks?  Lets start with a few definitions. 

• Hits ~ are the number of times files ( any files) are pulled up. A page with 5 graphics will create 6 hits ( one for the html too) 
• Page Views ~ this is the ACTUAL number of times pages are viewed in the time period. This includes repeated views.
• Unique Visitors ~ this is the number of UNIQUE computers that accessed the site in a time period. Most small business sites seem to aim for 50 unique visitors per day average. If you divide page views by Unique visitors, you can see how many pages on average people view on your site.
• Bookmarks ~ this maybe found as the FAVICON.ICO in the stats reports and indicates the number of times your site was added to the favorites list.
• Bandwidth ~ this is the data transfer allotment your server has set for your site. If you have 2GB, then pay attention to your daily traffic, if you have 20 GB, pay attention too! EVERY FILE counts on your bandwidth! EVERY FILE! Many servers will "close" your site if you go over the daily bandwidth allotted, some servers will keep a monthly total, and average the day at end. Either way, know which your server has, because a few popular days can kill your site, or leave you with a HUGE bill for bandwidth use. 

Counters will count page views, but allow persons to refresh and falsely up the counter.

If you use a free server ~ you are dependant upon the info they supply unless you find a free system to add stats. 

If you have your site hosted and do all the work yourself, you SHOULD have access to log file. *see your servers FAQ file for exact location* Download that file, and save to desktop or a folder you have set up. Then use a tool to view it. DO NOT OPEN THE LOG FILE if anything else is open. Many log files are 20 MB or more of just text and will be just lines of requests for files on the server. 

Use a tool to analyze and view the log file. OpenWebScope and WebLogLite have nice options, in two different styles. You can see where people came from, which search engines referred them, what keywords were used in the search, popular days and times for viewing, and much more information. For most causal and small business users, these statistics are more than enough. Need Log help?