Unique Visitors - YOUR Questions Answered
Folks,
Many thanks for all your responses to our recent post “Unique Visitors – Explained”. Today we’re going to try to answer your questions.
- Cookie Method - This method is the one used in the StatCounter Summary Stats. The Unique Visitor count can be distorted by cookies being disabled/destroyed.
- IP Address Method - This method counts Unique Visitors based on their IP addresses. The Unique Visitor count can be unreliable due to the use of dynamic IP addresses i.e. the same person can make use of multiple IP addresses during a single visit to a site.
- Log In Method - This method counts Unique Visitors based on people accessing a site via a username and password. The Unique Visitor count can be misrepresented by people have multiple log ins for a site or by sharing log in information.
QUESTION: Could we have the option to show “Unique Visitors” on the My Projects Summary page instead of “Page Views”?
Of course! This option is already available. Please see here for more information.
QUESTION: Please explain HOW you calculate Unique Visitors?
When a visitor comes to your site for the first time, StatCounter drops a “cookie” into their browser. This cookie allows us to identify the visitor and track them as a Unique Visitor as they look at multiple pages on your site.
Here’s how it works:
QUESTION: What is 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.
QUESTION: If a visitor visits my site 10 times within a day, is this recorded in the same way as if the visitor viewed it 10 times within a week?
This depends on the Maximum Visit Length setting for the site/project. This setting is used to calculate Unique Visits. Changing this setting allows you to define the maximum time that can elapse between page visits, while still considering that the sequence of page visits together all form one Unique Visit. This concept is easier to understand by way of example, so let’s look at this a bit more closely…
Let’s say the Max Visit Length is set to 30 minutes. Here’s how it works:
The page views of “News Today”, “Story A” and “Story B” are all considered to be part of one Unique Visit by a Unique Visitor. This is because each page view takes place within 30 minutes of the previous one.
The visit to “Story XYZ” is considered to be a separate Unique Visit by a Unique Visitor. This is because more than 30 minutes has elapsed since the previous page view on this site.
QUESTION: What value do you recommend for Maximum Visit Length and why?
We recommend setting it between 1 and 6 hours. We don’t recommend setting it to 24 hours and above. This is because an average visit to a website is likely to be a maximum of 1 to 6 hours. It is highly unlikely that a visitor will spend 24 hours on your website.
Consider a news website “NEWS Today” - let’s say someone visits this website on Monday morning to read up on the headlines. Later that evening that same person visits “News Today” to read up on some breaking news. The morning and evening visits are separate and distinct visits at different times and for different purposes. These visits are therefore considered to be separate Unique Visits.
QUESTION: What about visitors who disable cookies?
Unfortunately, when a visitor has cookies disabled, we have no way of establishing if they are a Unique Visitor or not.
Think of one Unique Visitor who visits 4 pages on your site during one single visit…
If this visitor has cookies enabled, then we can correctly track their activity and StatCounter will recognise the visitor as a single Unique Visitor who visited 4 pages on your site during their visit.
If this visitor has cookies disabled, then each of the 4 pageloads will be counted by StatCounter as a single one page visit by a Unique Visitor. Obviously, this is not strictly correct, but generally most visitors will have cookies enabled so this does give you a fairly accurate overview of your Unique Visitors.
QUESTION: But I want to know exactly how many individual people have visited my website - how do I do this?
Unfortunately there is NO foolproof way of calculating exactly how many individual people have visited a website. Each method has its limitations. For example:
QUESTION: How far back are “Unique Visitors” kept for? Is it anyone who’s ever visited my site, ever, or just the people responsible for my last 500 pageviews (or whatever my quota is)?
Every StatCounter project offers LIFETIME summary stats. That means that you can access ALL details of ALL Page Loads/Unique Visitors/Returning Visitors right from when you started tracking with StatCounter up to the present day.
QUESTION: Does StatCounter use IP addresses to calculate Unique Visitors?
StatCounter uses cookies to calculate Unique Visitors in the Summary Stats. We use IP addresses for visitor identification purposes in other parts of the system. (We plan to post about this when we explain other terms and stats in the future.)
Sincere thanks to Car Guy for his invaluable assistance in compiling this post. 
Please do comment below if anything above is unclear or if you have any further questions. Please also let us know about any errors, omissions or typos… although we try our best, sometimes mistakes do slip through so - if you spot a problem - please post a message to help us put things right ASAP. Thanks to Tom and Peter for their help with an error in our previous post!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:31 am
yeah. i got it and thanks for the continued patronage. i hope this service will be forever free. keep on being kind.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:13 am
This really is not a big deal and I am not so anal as to be bothered by it, but since you asked for corrections of typos, here goes: it says “QUESTION: How far back are “Unique 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)?” It should say “is it” not “it is”.
No biggie, but I guess you want to know.
StatCounter Team Response:
Thanks! Fixed!
December 1st, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Keep it free, nice job!
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:15 am
This is a very useful post. However I am still not sure how to change my settings.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Really handy post. It should help me in the future when using Statcounter.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:47 pm
For our free ads site stat counter is perfect, for a quick glance at the number of visitors and now more data on unique visitors its great for checking daily statistics. Keep up the great work.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Just to quick note to say thanks!!
I have been using Statcounter for about 5 years now, but only recently upgraded to paid package. I’m so so happy with the service, big thanks to Aodhan and co.
Joe
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 am
Hi Nita
To change the setting for Maximum Visit Length, click the little wrench to the right of your project, then click Edit Settings. You can change the Maximum Visit Length there and save.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 am
still believe that more unique visitors better than more page loads
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Is there some way to adjust the settings so that my visits to the page aren’t counted?
December 4th, 2009 at 4:34 am
Hi Deborah
Us e the blocking cookie, or IP blocking option in the Edit Settings for your project.
December 5th, 2009 at 2:58 am
thank you for the clarification, unique visitors is a better gauge than visitors in my opinion
December 5th, 2009 at 4:51 am
Yes I like to see unique visits mostly! Better way to see how your doing!
December 5th, 2009 at 9:09 am
From what I see, the majority of Internet users have cookies ON. This is because cookies are used extensively for many applications such as online games, Web 2.0 logins and etc. Therefore, the issue concerning visitors who have cookies off should be a minor one.
December 5th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Detailed overview you gave there - like it!
Still <3′ing Statcounter! Just wish wordpress.com would properly integrate it so we could use the full java enabled version.
December 5th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Thank you for this very helpful contribution, I would like to deal in future substantially more with Statcounter.
December 5th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
The Ips should be permanently stored to see the number of first time visitors. I would guess this cannot be done due to dynamic ips and bandwidth. So I guess the login is the best method. Remember to require email verification and have a captcha!
December 5th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
What are the usual standards that websites follow for Unique Visitor time lengths ? I have mine set to 30 minutes. Is that a decent standard or should it be more like 24 hours ?
December 6th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Thanks for the guide above, but I still am not sure about visit length if a visitor goes to only one page on my website. I believe I read that in that situation the visit length is unmeasurable and is therefore indicated as less than 5 seconds. I would appreciate a tutorial on this point.
December 6th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Is there any way to see where people are clicking? For example, which articles are getting read the most and how people navigate through the site?
December 7th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Those seeking more information about Visit Length can view the answer on the forum at;
http://forum.statcounter.com/vb/showpost.php?p=224556&postcount=5
December 8th, 2009 at 2:54 am
crystal clear..
@Ashray : I think its all according to your need. if you wanna know the unique visitors in every day, the convenient way is to set the time as 24 hours..
December 8th, 2009 at 7:54 am
this is really knowledgeful
December 8th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Great job in answering these questions………this is most helpful
December 8th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Ok… I have actually never seen a visitor use multiple ip at the same time. Can’t you just use the cookie in that case to keep the visitor single ( I am assuming that the problem would be to interprete the visitor to be more than one)?
Can’t you just make the method to count visitors configurable. If so the site owner could then experiment and decide self what is the best method.
What methods do the hit counter codes use?
Your service is excellent. Thanks.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:28 am
“Every StatCounter project offers LIFETIME summary stats. That means that you can access ALL details of ALL Page Loads/Unique Visitors/Returning Visitors right from when you started tracking with StatCounter up to the present day.”
But I thought that is just for paying members? Free members are limited to the quota, right?
December 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
i dont understad too.how to change my settings.
December 9th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Very useful information here, and spoken in “plain English”, thanks!
December 9th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Nice graphics, no doubt the unique visitor concept is well explained. Thanks for being free and giving excellent service
December 9th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I’m loving the service! Continue the great work!
December 9th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
The whitepaper, “INTERACTIVE METRICS – THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY,” by Vero Group explains more why Unique Visitors or Visitors is an “ugly” metric. Do not ever assume One Unique Visitor = One Human Being! You’d be wrong.
Visits is the superior metric for measuring “traffic” (whatever that means…) because it more accurately reflects what it says it reflects.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Thank you for this detailed explanation. I almost forgot about the ‘Maximum Visit Lengh” option in (Edit Settings) so now it is clear. Thanks for “Car Guy” for volunteering and replying our questions in the previous post
December 10th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
This is another great post, recognize that you can make mistakes too is great from yourself.
I want to wish all statcounter staff and all users, Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Baptista
December 10th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Hi,
it´s not possible to login to statcounter since yesterday. What happened?
December 13th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Comcast users had been blocked by Comcast. Seems that that is over now, Comcast fixed it. Not a Statcounter issue.
December 13th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Hi,
Very good piece of information, neatly explained. Thanks for the same.
Regards
Madhan.
December 13th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
it’s a good idea to answer our questitions
also i want to thank “statcounter team” a lot about the great web counter and all free servicies
December 17th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Excellently written very clear account. I was never quite sure how the unique visitor thing worked.
Thanks
December 17th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Nice work guys!
December 18th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
This is a clear, concise and easily understandable explanation about unique website visitors. Statcounter is a great free service please keep it up.
December 20th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Thanks, I just need to
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
Necesito saber cómo es posible recuperar la información de todas las estadísticas de mi blog desde que lo puse en marcha en abril de 2007 hasta que dejó de funcionar en julio de 2009.
December 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Simply want to say your article is striking. The clarity in your post is simply spectacular and i can take for granted you are an expert on this field. Well with your permission allow me to grab your rss feed to keep up to date with succeeding post. Thanks a million and please keep up the sound work
December 28th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Useful explanation
December 29th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
That changed how I look at my traffic on my site.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Still learning the ropes as a brand new upgraded subscriber & articles like this help enormously!
A big Thanks to all at Statcounter for the excellent service you provide!
December 30th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Just noticed straight after sending last message that my IP address has changed yet again, will this in some way affect the tracking code on my site?
Thanking you in anticipation,
January 1st, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Nice site - Here’s wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year !
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:36 am
I’m so pleased to see there’s actually some good content left online. I’m fed up with google sending me garbage.
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:33 pm
I was wondering how statcounter count visitors who disable cookies and finally see the answer here. It’s a bit sad but logically it make sense.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Most analytics program count unique visitors in 24 hr frames though. Just because they don’t visit your site for 24 hour straight is better than counting them 24 times, every 1 hour if they do visit your site that many times. Doesn’t make sense at all to count visitors more than once in 24 hour periods.
How about giving users stats that say “Absolute” visitors or something. Meaning these are really the truly unique visits.
I set my to 24 hours, and I’m still 100% positive that the statcounter tracking is still off. It says i have 7k visitors in 24 hours but when I compare with other counters that count 24 hours…their’s say 4k. Off by 3k =/ Pretty horrible.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:09 am
I was wondering: If someone goes to a webpage then immediately gets distracted by a phone call (or even by an impulse in their mind to go to a different task in a different window on their computer) and only comes back to the above-visited webpage say after 30 minutes, then immediately leaves that webpage, how much is that visit counted for? 30 min? If so, then given how many distractions people have in their lives these days, I often wonder if stats accurately reflect reality.
Thanks for clarifying all the other questions I often ask myself, too.
Dr Claude
January 5th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Nice site - Here’s wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year !
January 8th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Thanks for sharing this most important things with us. Keep it up. I want to enjoy this free service for longer time.
I like your post.
Great Job.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:33 am
This answered some of the questions I had about Statcounter. I am wondering if there is a way to determine whether a visitor came from a search engine, or from clicking on a backlink on some site he or she visited
Thanks
Richard
January 13th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Good writeup, I got all answer of my questions its a simple step to calculate unique visitors thanks for this gr8 help.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Howdy just thought I’d let you know that I am discovering problems reading this blog via my iphone so you might want to check on that. thanks!
January 16th, 2010 at 11:09 am
I appreciate your service and information. Statcounter is very helpful.
January 16th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
very good tutorial,i think it is better to have more unique visitors ,right?
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:24 am
I appreciate your service and information. Statcounter is very helpful.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:01 pm
This is very useful information………thanks guys
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 pm
StatCounter has always been a great free service (I’m a paying customer though), but I still don’t get the Maximum Visit Length concept. Guess I need to get it carved out in stone. Sometimes SC show, let’s say 15 unique visitors, but I can see with my own three eyes in the Visitor Paths, that there’s only 3 different ip’s visiting once within max 10 minutes, how’s that? The pageloads are always correct, I think.
Thx again for a great service - I’ve been an addicted user since I got the first fix for free.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
This finally answered some of my questions and I thank you. Unique visitors are what I am concerned with and this clarified what I’m looking at.
January 27th, 2010 at 5:53 am
Great!! you guys think in everything, now im sure i can manage better my site IBTimes
January 29th, 2010 at 5:39 am
Thanks for your free service and I hope to upgrade soon.
Gratefully,
Steve Gaither
Head Monkey
PurpleMonkeyPromos.com
January 29th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
hello. i created a website today and install code from stat counter. My stats show 3 page loads and 2 Unique Visitors. how do explain, only I acces my site, because him is not indexed yet ;_??