When studying your web site traffic, it is important to be able to differentiate above terms. A question that webmasters are often asked is "how many hits does your site get?". You then need to ask "do you mean hits, unique visitors or page views?". Many hit counters, such as FrontPage 2000 component can be a little misleading. This particular hit counter only measures page views and if you sit on a page clicking "refresh" button, it will increment. In order to get an accurate picture of your web site traffic flow; you'll probably want a more detailed reporting tool than this.

A hit is result of a file being requested and served from your web site. This can be a html document, an image file, an audio track etc. etc. Web pages that contain a large number of elements will return high hit scores. Hits are of very little consequence when analysing your visitor demographics.

A page view means just that. Once again, it is not a true indication of how many different people are visiting your web site, but it is a good way to judge how "sticky" (the ability to retain interest of visitors) your web site is and is an important consideration regarding possibility of attracting high paying advertising.

You can dramatically increase your sales simply by taking time to test and track your results. Not only will it help you to determine what's working and what's not, but it will also enable you to focus your efforts on strategies that produce results.

When testing your marketing strategies, keep in mind, a strategy that produces results for one person may not produce results for you. There is no 'set in stone' strategy that works for everyone. You must develop your own style and technique and test your results to determine what works for you. Below are some ad tracking resources to assist you in your testing and tracking endeavors.

Ad Tracking CGI Scripts

LnkinLite http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml

If you're looking for a simple way to track clickthroughs, then LnkinLite may be your answer. This free script will enable you to easily keep track of number of clicks a specific link receives. Instead of using your standard link within your advertising, you can use a link created by this script. It will track number of clickthroughs and instantly redirect your visitors to your URL.

Willmaster's ProLinkz http://www.prolinkz.com/

This powerful script is a link creator, tracker, disguiser and manager all in one. It will enable you to create uniquely coded links that redirect to any URL you specify and count all hits and referrers. Cost - $45.00

AdTrackZ http://www.adtrackz.com/

This script will enable you to set up an entire ad tracking campaign including statistical reports for referring URLs, what browsers your visitors have installed, what operating systems your visitors are using and much more. Cost - $47.00

Ad Tracking Services

LinkCounter http://www.linkcounter.com

A free service that tracks clickthrough rates of your links. In addition to tracking your links, LinkCounter hides URL of link destination. This will prevent users from removing or changing your affiliate ID when visiting an affiliate site through your link.

HyperTracker http://www.hypertracker.com