Unique Visitors - Explained
On the support desk at StatCounter, we receive a lot of queries about Unique Visitors. This concept can be a little difficult to understand, particularly if you are new to web stats, so we’re going to try explain it here in very simple terms.
What is a Unique Visitor?
A Unique Visitor is a separate/individual/distinct visitor.
Each Unique Visitor to your site will be EITHER a first time OR a returning visitor.
How are Unique Visitors and Pageloads related?
Firstly let’s be clear on what we mean by a pageload. A pageload is a “hit” or “page view” on a site.
When one page of your site is loaded into a browser, one pageload is generated. Clicking the refresh button generates another pageload. Visiting another page on the site will generate a further pageload.
All the pageloads on your site are generated by your Unique Visitors.
Let’s imagine you have 10 pageloads on your site. This could be the result of:
-
>> 10 Unique Visitors - each one visited your site once
>> OR 1 Unique Visitor - who visited your site 10 times
>> OR 5 Unique Visitors - each one visited your site twice
Can you explain Unique Visitors in the Summary Stats?
Let’s look at the Summary Stats below.
On Wednesday, there were 21 pageloads. This means there were 21 hits on the site. In other words, pages on the site were loaded in browsers 21 times.
These 21 pageloads were generated by 5 Unique Visitors. This means 5 distinct/separate individuals e.g. Mark, Paul, Tom, Joe and Simon.
Of the 5 Unique Visitors who viewed the site, three of them are Returning Visitors. This means that three of the five visitors have visited the site before and returned to view it again. The remaining two Unique Visitors are therefore First Time Visitors.
How are Unique Visitors in the Summary Stats calculated?
In the Summary Stats, Unique Visitors are calculated by the use of a “cookie”. A “cookie” is a small text file that we use at StatCounter to determine whether a visitor has been to your site in the recent past.
When a visitor first looks at a page on your site, a StatCounter cookie is placed in their browser (if allowed). Then, as the visitor browses your site, the cookie tells us that this is NOT a new/distinct/separate visitor visiting your site. Instead, it’s the same visitor looking at several different pages.
You should note that it IS possible for a visitor to disable all cookies in their browser.
When a visitor has cookies disabled, cookies cannot be used to determine whether the they are a Unique Visitor or not. If a visitor has cookies disabled, then each page of your site that he views will be considered to be a pageload by a Unique Visitor. Obviously, this is not strictly correct, so the Unique Visitor count is an imperfect measure. It does, however, give you a reasonably accurate overview of your Unique Visitors.
We hope this post is helpful - if anyone has any further queries or comments, please post below! Thanks! 
October 31st, 2009 at 9:29 am
Does it mean if a particular visitor has viewed my site for 10 times within a day will have the same statistic if he/she has viewed it for 10 times within a month? I believe Google Adsense only counts the page views of one particular viewer (with the same IP address) once in a day regardless of how many hits. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Your answer will really be much appreciated.
Thank you very much.
October 31st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Depends on your Maximum Visit Length setting for the site/project.
Maximum Visit Length
Used to calculate your unique and returning visitors from a cookie. If this amount of time or more has elapsed since a visitor last visited a page on your website, then that visitor is considered unique. We recommend setting it between 1 and 6 hours. We don’t recommend setting it to 24 hours and above.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I have wanted to know this information for sometime now. Just never got around to looking it up. Thank so much for explaining it. Knowing more about stats and your site gives me more info as to whether I should upgrade or not.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Not everyone would have been bothered to put down in simple terms for us “Thickies”. So thank you for taking the time.
October 31st, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Thank you. Indeed, that was a big help.
Next, if time allows, I would like to see a similar detailed explanation of what “No Referring Link” means - as well as a way to combat it (if one exists).
October 31st, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Thanks so much for clearing up my confusion about unique visitors!
October 31st, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Thanks for explaining Unique Visitors, I knew what it was but some may not.
In my stats, I see “No Referring Link” a lot. I for one would like more information on why we see it.
Otherwise keep up the good work!
November 1st, 2009 at 12:46 am
Thanks for the information, it is a great for helping me understand my statistics better
November 1st, 2009 at 7:29 am
Thanks for the information, it clears up many doubts. I wish everyone explained computing stuff in a simple way and with graphics and examples, like you have done.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:23 am
I have noticed that some ISPs (notably AOL) send visitors via a different route for each page that they visit. So the same (”unique”) visitor gets listed as a new visitor for each page that they visit, because StatCounter sees them as coming from a different IP address. Presumably there’s nothing that StatCounter can do about that?
November 1st, 2009 at 11:47 am
it’s a useful informtion
thanks for the explaining
November 1st, 2009 at 1:19 pm
How far back are ‘returning visitors’ kept for? It is anyone who’s ever visited my site, ever, or just the people responsible for my last 500 pageviews (or whatever my quota is)?
November 1st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
For the people asking about “no referring link”, I think that means that the visitor visited your website by typing the URL in the address bar, i.e. they weren’t ‘referred’ to it via a hyperlink. I think that’s correct, that’s what I’ve been assuming anyway!
November 1st, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Thank you for a very detailed explaination pertaining to this topic. Your and your staff’s hard work is much appreciated.
Best wishes,
Jack Robinson
GySgt., U.S. Marine Corps, Ret.
Director of operations-Resurrection Mission
November 1st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Thanks for this information. It’s been very helpful.
Also some of the comments were enlightening.
regards
Andrew Walker
November 1st, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Hi Chris
AOL does assign a new IP to most of it’s customers with each page load, but that does not determine if they are Unique or not. It’s only the presence of a cookie that Statcounter set that determines a Unique Visitor. If they are being counted as a Unique Visitor with each page load, it’s because their browser is not accepting cookies.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Hi Lumberjack33
How far back for returning visitors? If they still have a Statcounter cookie, then anytime they visit they will be shown as a Returning Visitor. Now if their IP is still the same, and their last visit is still within your log quota (500 for free account), then their current visit will be grouped by IP as shown in Visitor Paths.
If their last visit is not in your current log then you will only see the pages they have recently loaded but they will still be identified as a Returning Visitor, if they still have a cookie.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Hi Chris
Sorry about a typo in my post to you, it will certainly confuse anyone now LOL
It SHOULD read “If they are NOT being counted as a Unique Visitor with each page load, it’s because their browser is not accepting cookies.”
Every page load by a visitor who’s browser is NOT accepting cookies will be counted as a Unique Visitor for EACH page load.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:14 am
O boy, I wish I could edit this blog!
I DID have it worded correctly in my first post,….
“If they ARE being counted as a Unique Visitor with each page load, it’s because their browser is not accepting cookies.”
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:51 am
Excellent explanation of the differences. Thanks for clearing up the confustion there.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I think that others stats should also be explained.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
thanks for giving us more insight about this.I was also thinking in the same way,however some new things also came up.
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
We appreciate how unique visitors are calculated……..very informative !
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:16 am
And why don’t you recommend setting the value to 24 hours and up, and instead tell us to set it to 1 to 6 hours? It seems like it would artificially add visits to the count. I think 24 hours is a more sensible value. Or maybe I am getting something wrong. Could you please explain the rationale behind those numbers?
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
This is informative indeed but I’ve a question from the example you mentioned (Wednesday: 21 Page Loads - 5 Unique - 3 Returning) which is: how does the counter distinguish between the ‘two’ returning visitors and ‘three’ frist time visitors?
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Thanks to all at stat counter for the time and trouble you have taken re unique visitors its cool.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Sebastian,
of course setting a longer minimum interval will result in a lower statistical figure, but I guess it’s rather difficult to objectively justify ANY interval. Let’s use or own best judgement here.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:19 pm
what’s the correct terminology: Page View or Page Load?
November 4th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Hi Ramnath
Page view or page load are one and the same. You need tp load the page to view it.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Hi Hicham Maged
21 Page Loads - 5 Unique - 3 Returning
You have 21 page loads that we done by 1-5 individuals, and 3 done by returning individuals. So the number of visitors for that day could be anywhere from 4 to 8. I’ll explain below.
A returning visitor is deemed so by the presence of a Statcounter cookie. So we know that we have 3 individuals there, the 3 returning.
Unique individuals are another story. If they do not have a Statcounter cookie they are deemed as Unique. However, if their browser is not accepting cookies, every page load by them is counted as another Unique individual. So for the 5 Unique visitors, it could be 5 different individuals who don’t have the cookie, or it could be just one individual who’s browser is not accepting cookies.
No other way to do it.
November 4th, 2009 at 8:52 am
It would be fantastic to have the option to show the “Unique Visitors” stat on the Projects Summary page when you log in instead of the “Page Views” total. Uniques are what it’s all about when measuring site popularity and building traffic. The Page Views statistic is a secondary concern for me. I have 50 or so projects and drilling into every single project to log the Uniques every day costs me an hour I could better use elsewhere. I se the upgraded Statcounter and it is a fantastic service apart from this one very frustrating aspect.
Would it be possible to change this, or even have a “Setting” that allows a user to switch the Project Summary view to show either Uniques OR Page Views?
Thanks.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Thank you for the explanation, but there is something I still can’t grasp:
If a person visits my website one day, he is counted as a first-time visitor, and when he visits the next day, he is registered as a returning visitor. Correct? So when I look at the stats for that week/month/year and look at my unique visitors, this person is counted twice – once as a first-time visitor and once as a returning visitor?
Or does it subtract one from the first-time visitors when a returning visitor is registered?
The bottom line: how do I see the total amount of visitors to my website; that is, all the individuals who have visited my site since I started using Statcounter?
I thought it would be by looking at unique visitors, but I am confused now. Is it by looking at first-time visitors (the rationale being that EVERY visitor was a first-time visitor at one point)?
I really hope someone can be helpful in this regard. Thanks.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I quote myself, “Unique individuals are another story. If they do not have a Statcounter cookie they are deemed as Unique. However, if their browser is not accepting cookies, every page load by them is counted as another Unique individual. So for the 5 Unique visitors, it could be 5 different individuals who don’t have the cookie, or it could be just one individual who’s browser is not accepting cookies.
No other way to do it.”
Their is NO absolute way to determine how many actual “visitors” a web site gets! You need to distinguish one visitor from another. This can only be done by IP or cookies. IP’s are not reliable, AOL for example gives a new IP for every page load by it’s customers, so that doesn’t work. Cookies are not reliable because people can delete or refuse cookies. SO we are left with cookies as an “approximate” means to use. They are used to determine returning visitors, but still have their limitations.
As far as the summary information goes, if a visitor first comes to your site on Monday, then returns on Tuesday, if they are not refusing cookies, and still have the first cookie, they are BOTH Unique & Returning. One is not subtracted from the other. If they have no cookie on Tuesday, they are Unique again because we cannot be sure if they have been to your site before.
The forum is a much better place to get your questions answered.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Hey Guys Love the Site! Really good content. When are you going to release an interactive 3d pagetracker?
November 4th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
It is a great information. i cleared my doubts. Going to keep reading on this blog.
November 4th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
OH..This was really helpful information.I love this free counter and using it on my blogs with ease
November 4th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Thank you for clearing that up!
November 5th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
thanks so much for the infos!
November 5th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Viešbučių: I agree that we should use our best judgment, but there is no explanation about what criteria should guide that judgment. We are operating in a vacuum here, because StatCounter doesn’t explain why short intervals are preferable to one-day intervals. I mean, the stats are daily, so… shorter periods don’t make much sense, in my opinion. I asked for an explanation of why I’m wrong.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Thanks for this - I had been confused for quite a long time !
November 6th, 2009 at 3:15 am
excelent note, thank you!
November 6th, 2009 at 4:54 am
Great explanation… especially love the pictures! =)
November 6th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Very well explained, thanks guys!
November 6th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Very well explained. Thanks. Personally I value the unique visits only, which originally shows the traffic changes to the site, while I assume the page loads as the interest shown by user in my content.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Nicely explained. I wish I have been using Stat Counter before, when I was total newbie. Lots to learn here.
Thanks, John
November 6th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Its a very useful & informative
Thanks for explained.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
10 Unique Visitors - each one visited your site once better than 1 Unique Visitor who visited your site 10 times
November 6th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Thanks for adding such a nice post. i like to know how to calculate the approximate time visitor spend on site, shall i use entry page and exit page stats? or just the average visitor stay calculate it all.
Thanks in advance for all your help.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
OH..This was really helpful information.I love this free counter and using it on my blogs with ease.
November 7th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I’m using statscounter for my portfolio and this explains me a lot on the pageview details.
November 7th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I’ve experienced different unique visitors logged under the same ip address. It happens rarely, but it happens.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
thanks super.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:36 am
hi admin, do you know how to get 1000 visitor in a single day,.??? i really stuck on it,
November 10th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Thank you sir for explaining this.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:32 am
This is what I am looking for. I was not sure about the unique visitor who visit my site. But there also some visit from a returning visitor who just land in about 10-15 second and leave the site. He/she do this everyday..
Not sure what are they looking for..
November 10th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Thanks for this useful information, I was looking for it.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Thank you for a very detailed explaination pertaining to this topic. Your and your staff’s hard work is much appreciated.
Best wishes from Germany
November 11th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
I love your service but there are some anti-spyware software that are blocking the cookies from Statcounter. It’s easy to manually identify the unique visitors but I think the number is being inflated by the “cookie blocking software”.
Cheers
November 11th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Car Guy: Thanks so much for the time and effort you spent while replying my question in your comment (http://blog.statcounter.com/2009/10/unique-visitors-explained/#comment-115570)
November 14th, 2009 at 10:36 am
good for people
November 14th, 2009 at 10:43 am
this website so good
November 14th, 2009 at 10:45 am
i like this website
November 14th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Based on the ideas and suggestion on statcounter blog, I have written my own blog. Would appreciate if one of the team member in here, has a look at my blog and suggest ways to improve so that I have better ranking.
November 14th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
No referring link just means it’s a saved link in someone’s browser right?
November 16th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
We have found that so many people must block the statcounter cookie that the unique visitor count is rarely accurate unfortunately, as can easily be seen by 10 unique visitors with 10 pageviews from the same IP in the same 3 minute period. I realize this is a limitation all hit trackers must face, so we just deal with it.
November 17th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Thank you for clearing this up a bit. Keep up the good work you guys!
November 17th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
is the cookie of the unique visitor tied to his/her unique IP address? And because IP address change fequently how does that affect the cookie?
November 19th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Is there any way to display total unique visitors for all projetcs? Or say total pageviews for all projects? We have like 50 + sites and it would be nice to know the total uniques/pageloads to ALL our sites.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 am
Hi Curious
Cookies are tied to a unique computer. Any time that computer accesses our site the cookie is read. The IP can change at any time, daily, weekly or even with each page load. AOL users most often get a new IP with each page load. That doesn’t affect the cookies.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:55 am
Would appreciate if someone had a look at my call center blog and suggested if there is something I can do to improve it.