Hit

Hit is a historical term from the early days of the web. Originally a hit counted every single request a browser made to the server. A page with text, six images and a stylesheet produced eight hits. With modern web applications this counting method is no longer meaningful.

Historical and current meaning

In the 1990s, hits were considered a measure of website popularity. Providers boasted millions of hits without this saying much about real visitor numbers. With the rise of dedicated web analytics tools like Google Analytics, page views, sessions and users established themselves as the metrics. In Google Analytics 4, the term hit is no longer used, only events.

Practice and demarcation

Anyone using the term hit today usually means a tracked action or a request in a log file. In server logs, every HTTP request appears as an entry. These values are useful for performance and security analysis, but not for reach statements. Reach is measured through unique users and sessions, not through the sum of all requests.

Context in daily marketing

In day to day marketing, the term hit is outdated and should be explained to stakeholders when it appears. Reach and behaviour are measured today through page views, sessions and conversions. In the sending reports of JD Mail, events such as opens and clicks are counted, not hits. This creates consistent values across all channels.