The use of standards is extremely important in every field of human activity, and becomes especially in all areas related to measurement of both tangible and intangible elements.


Since the first release of 2002 ImetriX Web Analytics adopted international standards, adapting to the new solution before determinations IAB-US then the Web Analytics Association, the highest authority in the matter.

Below the three key metrics that underpin the entire Web Analytics:


Page View
Definition: The number of times a page was viewed.

Note: Content, such as XML feeds (RSS or Atom) and emails, that can be delivered to both web browsers and non-browser clients are not typically counted as page views because the request or receipt of the content does not always correspond to the content being displayed.
As an alternative, image based page tags can be placed inside such content to track the views of all or portions of the content.

Visit

Definition: A visit is an interaction, by an individual, with a web site consisting of one or more requests for a page.
If an individual has not taken another action (typically additional page views) on the site within a specified time period, the visit will terminate by timing out.

Note: Different tool providers use different methodologies to track sessions. Ask your tool provider how this metric is computed. A typical time-out period for a visit is 30 minutes, but this time period is configurable in many web analytics applications. If you use online advertising on your site, note that upcoming Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) guidelines on audience reach measurement will make a 30-minute inactivity time-out a requirement.

Unique Visitors

Definition: The number of inferred individual people (filtered for spiders and robots), within a designated reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to a site. Each individual is counted only once in the unique visitor measure for the reporting period.

Note: Authentication, either active or passive, is the most accurate way to track unique visitors.

However, because most sites do not require a user login, the most predominant method of identifying unique visitors is via a persistent cookie that stores and returns a unique id value, introducing inaccuracies from cookie deletion, shared computers, browsing from multiple browsers or computers, etc.

Because different methods are used to track unique visitors, you should ask your tool provider how they calculate this metric.