Unique Visitors: What makes you stand out?



    The metric of unique visitors is defined as "the number of individual people within a defined reporting timeframe that visited a site" (Reed College of Media, 2021). This metric falls under the category of acquisition metrics as it is indicative of how effective your marketing strategies are at bringing users to your site (Abbamonte, 2019). This metric is important to measure for websites because it tells a business what kind of traffic they're getting, how much, and as an industry comparison (Schneider, 2021). Unique visitors are important for building website reach or for selling advertising. When the number of unique visitors coming to your site is increasing, it means that your business is experiencing brand growth and presence (Indeed, 2021). Visitors are counted through the use of softwares such as IP address or cookies. 

IP Address

    When a user visits your website, Google Analytics will collect their IP address after a hit is delivered, i.e. when a page finishes loading (Sauer, 2020). In simpler terms, tags from Google Tag Manager are attached to the IP address. While Google Analytics collects them, they are not available in the reporting interface. 

Cookies

   The cookies I'm talking about here, unfortunately, aren't the kind you can eat. Cookies on the web are small pieces of javascript that are placed into the visitors browser that tracks their browsing (At Internet, 2019). Cookies are used by almost every website in the world. Nowadays, every time you hop onto a new website, a pop up automatically appears asking you to accept them. Each cookie has its own unique ID number for identifying browsers/individuals. With these however, users can decide to accept or deny cookies, so tracking will not always be accurate. 

Not everything is perfect

    The counting of unique visitors isn't always perfect. If the user were to clear their browsing history and cookies, then their subsequent visit to a particular website would be counted again. Other issues come from using a different browser on the same device, using private or incognito mode, and using more than one device to view the same site (Mastrianna, 2021). 
    Despite these small issues, the number of unique visitors your website receives can be indicative of user behavior. If you have a larger number of unique visitors, but a comparable number of returning visitors, it could be a sign that users enjoy your website and content. However, if your website has a high number of unique visitors, but a lower number of returning visitors, it could mean something is wrong. 

Website Value

    The metric of unique visitors is not solely indicative of website value. The combination of other metrics such as page views, visit duration, and bounce rate will give a business a more extensive understanding of their online performance (Indeed, 2021). These three, along with unique visitors, are the metrics that must be emphasized when evaluating website performance (Abbamonte, 2019). 


    Every business has their own goals and benchmarks, so not all will be tracking the same thing. It is up to the business to decide what metrics they want to track and put importance on. There are hundreds of articles on Google titled as 'the best' or 'top' metrics to track and why they really matter. While it can be helpful to read through these articles, it is ultimately the decision of the business and its employees to decide what they want to focus on. All metrics matter, but you must decide what to do with them. 




References

Abbamonte, K. (2019, May 22). The 17 essential website kpis for measuring performance. Data Box. https://databox.com/website-kpis-and-measuring-performance 

At Internet. (2019, August 12). Visits, visitors, unique visitors... what are the differences for the web analyst? At Internet.com. https://blog.atinternet.com/en/visits-visitors-unique-visitors-what-are-the-differences-for-the-web-analyst/ 

Indeed. (2021, February 22). Guide to unique visitors. Indeed. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/guide-to-unique-visitors 

Mastrianna, L. (2021, February 9). Everything you need to know about unique visitors in google analytics. Data Driven. https://www.datadrivenu.com/unique-visitors-in-google-analytics/ 

Reed College of Media. (2021). Week 1 module: Introduction to web analytics, basic of web analytics and tool introduction and selection. West Virginia University. 

Sauer, J. (2020, March 20). What is the role of ip tracking in google analytics? Data Driven. https://www.datadrivenu.com/ip-tracking-google-analytics/ 

Schneider, D. (2021, January 14). Unique visitors: understanding and targeting your competitors' audience. SimilarWeb. similarweb.com/corp/blog/unique-visitors/ 


Comments

  1. Mark TietbohlApril 3, 2021 at 2:40 PM

    I have been reading that Google may be moving away from cookies, but it is unclear where they are headed at this point. They do have the User ID so that they know who the visitor is, and if you have the right CRM or customer management system, they will reveal who it is. But the standards are high.

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