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! 😉
I think everything is clear. Just many newbies here. Oh God I hate newbie
I just found stats counter sometime agao and i love it.So much easier to use compared to GA.
The information regarding the traffic management in the web is cool.
Thanks for giving information regarding traffic management in the internet.
Hi,
How to block my own visits from showing up on the stats
so a unique visitor is the one who visit our site, eventhough he or she are from the same ip, ??? how could we get more visitor a day ???
Hi Alex
It sounds like your browser is not accepting, or keeping Statcounter cookies.
L.E : Sorry again, it seems to be ok from now..i think mozila laugh at me 😀
Hey, sorry for this off mesage but i want to ask everybody, why today when i want to login to StatCounter project it login me but when i reload the page… it’s login me out :-s its the first time when its happend. I use Mozila and in other days the password and account it’s still there, but today… i must to login constantly..any idea ?
Informative post. I was unique visitors are tracked by IP. So, if a visitor clear his cookie after visiting site and then visit again then there will be 2 count for unique visitors.
Thanks
It’s very good, Thanks
@Mary-
In the customize settings menu you can specify IP addresses to block from getting counted. Just input your own and you wont have to see all the hits coming from your own computer.
Great explanation about uniques!
thank you verry good site sağlık olsun yes ı dou sohen sii
If it is a ‘spam’ visitor, then the StatCounter data will not show. To recognize this; when you find yourself having a new comment arrived and needed to be approved but then see there is nobody visiting your blog (that day). To prevent this; use Akismet.
If I wanted to upgrade, there’s nothing telling me how I would go about working out how much in Aussie dollars?
It’s a good explanation but the important is the visitors. I always update my visitors time to time using this great tool Statcounter. Thanks a lot.
I’ve had this blog for a couple of years now, but haven’t done much with it. I have finally made a resolution to keep it up to date and summoned up the courage to add a a couple of gadgets, including a counter. I have been downloading old articles to my blog that have been hanging round on my hard drive for some time, some having been published, before I move on to daily or at least weekly additions.
Despite the excellent information about unique visitors etc, I am suspecting that the sudden traffic has been initiated by me doing the downloads, I have become my own unique visitor. Can this happen?
Thanks for explanation. My understanding is much clearer now.
Thank you for your posting! Most helpful. Plus, who knew that, if I actually READ all your instructions, I’ll manage to install the stat counter??
🙂
Looking forward to more visitors!!
Now I get it! I was adding the two together to get my daily visit rate