Traffic

Traffic
Similar to a real−world sense of traffic on a road or freeway, traffic in a web−sense is a measurement of the amount of users that visit a Web site. Web site traffic was initially viewed as an all-important metric for gauging success on the Web. This assumption was due in part to the lack of other business metrics to explain the .com phenomenon. Now much of the focus has shifted back to profitability, and Web site traffic is only part of the equation. //Web site traffic x conversion = results// Web site traffic is still important, as you can't have conversions without visitors, but it is becoming less important as a standalone metric.

The following types of information are often collated when monitoring web traffic:
 * The number of visitors
 * The average number of page views per visitor – a high number would indicate that the average visitors go deep inside the site, possibly because they like it or find it useful. Conversely, it could indicate an inability to find desired information easily.
 * Average visit duration – the total length of a user's visit
 * Average page duration – how long a page is viewed for
 * Domain classes – all levels of the IP Addressing information required to deliver Webpages and content.
 * Busy times – the most popular viewing time of the site would show when would be the best time to do promotional campaigns and when would be the most ideal to perform maintenance
 * Most requested pages – the most popular pages
 * Most requested entry pages – the entry page is the first page viewed by a visitor and shows which are the pages most attracting visitors
 * Most requested exit pages – the most requested exit pages could help find bad pages, broken links or the exit pages may have a popular external link
 * Top paths – a path is the sequence of pages viewed by visitors from entry to exit, with the top paths identifying the way most customers go through the site
 * Referrers; The host can track the (apparent) source of the links and determine which sites are generating the most traffic for a particular page.

Example:
Third party websites such as DART Double Click ([|http://www.doubleclick.com)] allow for advertisers to measure the amount of traffic that a specific web site has within a given time frame. It allows for dayparting (viewing the peak hours in which a site is viewed), and also allows advertisers to measure the amount of times their specific ad is visited or clicked on during a certain period of time.