The word “hits” is commonly used these days and can cause confusion for many website owners, because in reality your traffic should not just be seen as hits, it should be split in to two groups, hits and visitors.

A visitor: This can be described as a unique person entering your website that then goes on to other pages and browses your site. No matter how many pages they look at, they will still only count as one visitor in your server logs. For example, if a person entered a website which sells golf supplies and they look at a certain brand of golf ball; they would then be counted as one visitor despite how many differing brands they may choose to then browse.

A hit: This however is different in the way that it counts every time a person moves to a different page on your website. Meaning every time a visitor moves to a different page on your website, it will create a hit in your server logs. For example, a hit in the same golf supplies website would be for every different brand of golf ball that the same person chooses to look at.

So now that you know the difference between a visitor and a hit, which one should you be keeping your eye on when analyzing your website stats? Well, it is just as important to be watching your visitors as it is your hits. Your site visitors are important because this allows you to clearly see how many unique people are being directed to your website. It is always good to see how many different customers your website is attracting.

Your website hits are also important in the way that they show the number of pages that are currently being viewed on your site. You can use this information to see how well your website is doing its job. Is your website landing page enough to entice your visitors to dig deeper and spend more time on your website, reading more and more of its content and what it has to offer. Or are people simply hitting on to the first page and then quickly moving on?

So, here you have it, the difference between a hit and a visitor and if used correctly when analyzing your websites traffic, you can use them together to see how well your website is performing. Never underestimate the power of your website stats; it is analyzing these that will give you some insight in to the future of your website.

About the Author

Online business is growing rapidly but there is still such a large number of businesses missing out on this opportunity. Kaplang is a unique design firm that provides quality services for web design, web development, search engine optimization and all other web solutions. Make sure your business stands out from the crowd when adding an online presence to your new or existing business. http://www.kaplang.com/searchengine.html

I know for a fact what has happened and why it is so much harder to succeed on Google now days, and I can almost guarantee some of the things that were said at Google. I bet several executives and employees of Google said “How can we make sure that all the web sites appearing in our results are valuable resources?”. Which makes complete sense because without valuable results in their search engines; they lose their stance as the best search engine on the internet. I also bet someone came up with a simple, yet, extremely bright idea and said something like this “Why don’t we just change the algorithm so that it takes true hard work; or true popularity for people to get to the top of our search engine?”, or something of that nature.

In essence Google saw blasted all over every Search Engine Optimization Blog world a new fad called link building; and that people were exchanging links left and right, which in all reality was creating illegitimate links (because there was no genuine interest in the web site thru this link to begin with). So I can only (once more) assume they talked to one another and said, “We should give very little value to links where web sites exchanged links in both directions”.

Then another issue that had to arise during this algorithm change was Google needed to make sure they could not be thwarted by all SEO gurus, and they did something else to help perpetuate that. In order for your hundreds of links you obtain to be most effective, your links must have unique hypertext or surrounding text to have high quality value. For example, if someone had the exact same link to their web site posted on 1,000 web sites saying “click here for quality dog food”; This would easily alert Google that this site does not have actual quality inbound links, and that someone either manually or automatically posted the same link to every related site they could find. Common sense of most every webmaster would tell them to post the a link over and over to as many place related web sites, but many didn’t consider the need for unique hypertext and descriptions to the web site. Therefore; once again, I can assume that Google decided the more unique the hypertext wording; the higher the chance that the link is authentic.

Another issue that arises is that many webmasters will create a web site that does not have any content change at all. You can have tons of great links, but I am positive that Google admires sites with fresh content. You need to update your site every few months (at least) and tweak some things regularly; you should also always add new fresh content.

Others have also realized that Google does value web sites that have been on the internet for extended periods of time. So if you are starting a new web site you need to be able to trench down for a long fight, however the rewards are great to the person that doesn’t falter and is persistent until the end.

Google isn’t prejudice, if you had as many unique links to your web site as yahoo.com Google would value you as an equal resource. Know that you are just another search optimizer against hundreds of thousands of others. How will you set yourself apart?

So to recap, Google decided that they needed to make sure that your web site is legitimately linked to. Unfortunately there are only a few ways to do that, and guarantee it withstands the tests of time. Here are some of my own personal ideas:

It comes down to the simple fact that now days in order to make sure you secure a long lasting high search engine ranking, you have to actually create content that markets itself. Also you must create enough interest in your web site that people are willing to take enough time to link to you without expecting a link back. All that said, here are my ideas that will help you to gain long lasting valuable links to your web site which will help make sure your long term search optimization goals are worth while.

Let’s start by getting our web site listed in to directories related to your topic; however don’t use the same title and description for each posting – constantly switch it up. Something I do personally in my spare time to help my site is go on other peoples blog’s talking about a subject that your web site is similar to and write genuine posts with your link attached. Don’t just flood their web site with links, you won’t get far and your posts will not be accepted. Publishing of articles online is great; be creative – that is what will set you apart. You can also host or sponsor events that will be talked about online. Offer incentives for people in your field to link to you, freebies, services, etc.

I tell you the absolute truth, whoever has a good work ethic and more creative bone in their body will succeed. This is because you will always have to find ways to create a constant flow of links to your web site without trying to manipulate a search engines perspective. Hard work is the easiest way to beat everyone else. Here is a quote I love from an unknown author: Some People Dream Of Success While Others Wake Up And Work Hard At It.

Guest Author

Joel McLaughlin http://www.dataflurry.com
I am a 23 year old search optimization specialist from Phoenix Arizona. I also enjoy web design and some programming on the side.

Separation of Content from Presentation

The separation improves the accessibility of content on the web pages. Moreover, it provides flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics at the same time reducing complexity and repetition in the structural content.

CSS also allows the web page to be presented in different styles so that it suits different rendering methods. The web content is thus made available in various forms like on-screen, print, voice modes (speech-based browsers and screen readers) etc.

While CSS offers a plethora of benefits on the Internet, a good knowledge of the same is required if you need to employ it for your website. Therefore, to really reap the benefits of CSS and make it work for your online presence, you should invest quality time in learning its nuances.

Why is CSS good for Google?

CSS has a considerable impact on how Google views your website. In fact, you can soar your website’s chances to rank well in the Google search results by employing CSS efficiently. CSS has many benefits with respect to Google.

• It shrinks the file sizes on your web pages
• It grants more control over the structure of the web pages
• It allows for certain content information to be hidden by browsers yet be visible to Google crawlers.

Let us understand all these potential benefits in detail:

Smaller File Sizes

Without CSS, all the styles on your web pages require to be supported by appropriate HTML coding. And this bloats up the file size which further adds up on the load time of the website.

CSS takes out the style from the HTML pages and puts into another separate file called the css file. This reduces the amount of code on the web pages. Lesser amount of code means smaller sizes of files and this is something Google prefers in the web pages on the Internet. Ideally, web pages should not be more that 100 kb.

Moreover, smaller file sizes also cause the pages to load quickly. This increases the accessibility and pleases your website visitors.

Increased Control over Web Pages

With CSS, you are able to structure the documents of your web pages as per the HTML standards at the same time retaining the look and feel of the page. Better structure with the same visual appeal is what CSS grants you.

Google prefers well structured web pages that score well on the design aspects too. And CSS allows website designers to do just the same. They can create attractive websites that not only are a treat to look at but also adheres to the standards and guidelines of the web.

Hiding Content from Browsers

With CSS, you can hide bits and chunks of content that you don’t want the browser to read yet want Google crawlers to take into account. For example, you may have certain content on your website that you want to appear only on vice versa. CSS makes it possible to camouflage certain text without loosing on the chances of being picked up by Google.

Guest Author

Kabir Bedi is a senior web consultant at LeXolution IT Services, a professioanal web development company that has a team of skilled Web developers India. The company offers a plethora of web services including web design and development services.