Ad Views

The number of times an ad is downloaded and presumably seen. If the same ad appears on multiple pages simultaneously, this statistic may understate the number of ad impressions because of browser caching. This term corresponds with net impressions in traditional media.

Banner Ad

An ad on a web page that is usually "linked" to the advertiser's site.

Browser Caching

For the purpose of speed surfing, browsers store recently used pages on the computer's hard drive. If a site is revisited, browsers display pages from the disk instead of requesting them from the site's server. As a result, servers undercount the number of times a page is viewed.

CPM

CPM is the Cost Per Thousand. A web site that charges $15,000 per banner and guarantees 600,000 impressions has a CPM of $25 ($15,000 divided by 600).

Hit

Each time a web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server's statistical log as a 'hit.' Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the coding language used to make hypertext documents for the web.

Page

All web sites are a collection of electronic 'pages.' Each web page is a document formatted in HTML that contains text, images and/or media objects such as Real Audio player files, QuickTime videos or Java applets. The 'home page' is typically a visitor's first point of entry to a site.

Page Views

This constitutes the number of times a user requests a page that may contain a particular ad. Indicative of the number of times an ad was seen.

Unique Users

The number of different individuals who visit a site within a specific period of time. To identify unique users, web sites rely on a variety of registration systems or the IP address of the visitor. The latter (and most common) method undercounts users because Internet service providers often share IP addresses.

URL

Uniform Resource Location is the address that a browser uses to find and display a web site.

Visits

A sequence of page requests made by one user at one site.