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:
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>> 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! 😉
good for people
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)
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
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
Thanks for this useful information, I was looking for it.
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..
Thank you sir for explaining this.
hi admin, do you know how to get 1000 visitor in a single day,.??? i really stuck on it,
thanks super.
I’ve experienced different unique visitors logged under the same ip address. It happens rarely, but it happens.
I’m using statscounter for my portfolio and this explains me a lot on the pageview details.
OH..This was really helpful information.I love this free counter and using it on my blogs with ease.
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.
10 Unique Visitors – each one visited your site once better than 1 Unique Visitor who visited your site 10 times
Its a very useful & informative
Thanks for explained.
Nicely explained. I wish I have been using Stat Counter before, when I was total newbie. Lots to learn here.
Thanks, John
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.
Very well explained, thanks guys!
Great explanation… especially love the pictures! =)
excelent note, thank you!