Front Page Hits?
You have most likely noticed that every page of the site displays a number with "front page hits" under it.
This number is exactly what it says: it's the number of visits to the main page of the site - the news page, in other words. The number on the counter does not rise if you view any other page of the site.
But why would I do that? Why don't I put my unique visitor counter up there, or at least count the hits on every page, instead of bizarrely just counting one page?
Well, the main reason is consistency. When I first got a hit counter, I found a free one at Sparklit and stuck it up there. But that was before the time I started including the menu and such on every page of the site, and somehow I hadn't really thought to put the counter on every page - I just placed it on the one page that seemed most logical to count on, which was the front page. When I did start to include the menu and everything on every page, I thought it was a bit odd to take a counter that had only been counting pageviews on one page and suddenly start making it count pageviews on all the pages. It would suddenly make all the hit celebrations happen with much shorter in between, etc. I therefore decided to stick with having the counter only on the front page.
Later I've realized that front page hits are in fact a very logical thing to count. When you count unique visitors or pageviews on every page of the site, you count people whose mouse slipped onto an affiliate link and who left upon seeing the splash page, people who clicked it from a search engine but left immediately upon finding or not finding what they were looking for, people who came to for example try the "What Pokémon Are You?" quiz but never came to the site again... All sorts of people who barely stepped in and are certainly no regular visitors get counted towards the total.
Counting pageviews on the main page is counting the people who clicked an affiliate link out of curiosity and continued past the splash page. It is counting the people who clicked it from a search engine, thought it was interesting and went on to see what was new. It is counting the regular visitors who have bookmarked the Cave of Dragonflies main page or memorized the URL and check it regularly for updates. And those people, after all, are the ones who really give an idea of about how popular a website is and can make a webmaster feel proud.
Therefore, the front page hits are staying as the number in the corner and the subject of all hits celebrations.
Page last modified July 01 2006 at 20:42 GMT
