A unique visitor is a person who views a website in a given time range. Unique visitors define a metric that counts the number of distinct visitors to a page or multiple pages on a website.
The number of unique visitors does not increase if a previous visitor returns to a page multiple times – they will still be counted as a single unique visitor.
Measuring unique visitors can help your business by:
- Showing you the size of your audience – By tracking the number of unique visitors, you get insight into how many people see your content for the first time. For example, if you run a Facebook ad that directs people to your website, you could use unique visitors to measure how many people clicked on the ad and visited your site.
- Helping you understand your customers’ behavior – You can respond appropriately to how users behave on your site. For example, if visitors continue to return to your website, it could indicate that they enjoy your content or are interested in your services. On the other hand, if you have a lot of unique visitors but few returning visitors, you might need to investigate why they don’t return.
The number of unique visitors can be inaccurate. The same users may visit your site using different browsers, devices, or IP addresses. So, someone who scrolled through a product page on their phone but moved to the desktop for purchasing is considered two unique visitors.
