1,000,000+ Hits a Month

(December 2002)

2 million hits (March 2004)

3 million hits (January 2006)

4½ million hits (January 2007)

6 million hits (May 2007)

Latest Traffic Statistics for www.watercressline.co.uk (currently: 1.1GB; 8400 files)

This page contains FAQ and stuff transferred from the general letters page which maybe of interest to other heritage railway webmasters, etc.

FAQ

Scoring high points on web-spider indexes without paying for this

Trying to make a site to which browsers will return

Starting (or improving) a website

Simple image-editing program

Which HTML editing program do you use?
I have used several freebie programs, but now mainly nvu and Maruo... tw

Who hosts www.watercressline.co.uk?

More about One Million Hits

To: Tony Wood
From: Kyoichi Oda
3rd January 2003
Subject: 1,000,000 hits!
Hello Tony
It's quite brilliant news achievement of one million hits on a month! I'm happy if Japanese pages could contribute to this. I've done the amendment of index_j.htm and am translating the booking form.
Your friend
Kyoichi
(MHR Volunteer, Japanese Correspondent and Translator)

To: Tony Wood
2nd January 2003
Subject: Re: MHR Webs No matter what the numbers actually mean
Dear Tony
Many thanks for your message.
Nice to hear of your successes.
Wishing you all the best for 2003.
David Pladgeman
www.gcrailway.co.uk

2nd January 2003
Tony
You have made a success of the MHR web site and are contributing to the success of the Railway itself. Your shouting about 1000000 hits is generating interest not only in your website/Railway but others too. We should be grateful for ANY publicity for the heritage railway movement. And now I understand how you arrived at the 1M figure - and I'm haring around trying to find a million of anything WSRish to shout alongside you.
All is well... :-)
Steve
www.wsr.org.uk

To: d.pladgeman@ntlworldnospam.com, stephen@the-edge-familynospam.freeserve.co.uk
From: Tony Wood
Subject: Fwd: MHR Webs No matter what the numbers actually mean, to say you have one million
Date: 2nd January 2003

Hi David and Steve
You may wish to repeat this e-mail to your Newsgroup for information.
Sorry you did not readily find the information I put on the MHR website about the matters you raise.
Could I now point you towards:
www.watercressline.co.uk/laststat.htm and www.watercressline.co.uk/rawstat.htm (the latter being an internal info page for MHR management, but one which is searchable to reveal which pages etc., our browsers look at the most).
Earlier correspondence from your Newsgroup was forwarded to me by MHR volunteer Bob Bristow, and an edited compilation appears on our Letters page www.watercressline.co.uk/topical.htm (and below) where I replied to the points raised and added my own thoughts on the process of boosting website visitor numbers.
................................................................................................................
I have tried to make our website 'sticky', and downloads of an icon placed automatically in our customers' Favourites/Bookmarks suggest this is the case. Many browsers routinely look at the Loco Shed and Latest News pages (some more often than daily!) but can be tempted further by the hyperlinks; they don't want to miss anything. MHR Loco Shed pages may be the first web soap. Staff recognised by name and function by visitors they don't know are no longer surprised: "We saw you on the website." Our website includes many contributions from our browsers: excellent photos often within an hour or so of being taken, and enthusiastic e-mails without the grousing often seen elsewhere.
In the past six months we have seen a dramatic rise in hits from Japanese domains, many referred from their children's websites and from such search engines as Yahoo (Japanese version). They have found our Thomas pages in their language ( e.g.: www.watercressline.co.uk/mh1108_j.htm ).
Most of the UK searches shown in the December statistics used strings directed to our Santa Specials ('Santa' 'Father +Christmas' etc.) or 'Thomas' , but more typically people search for 'watercress+line' or 'mid-hants+railway'. One search engine even directed a search on 'bouncy+slide' to our Thomas pages! Do a search in Google on 'watercress' and MHR website comes top of their list! Most browsers go straight to either the Loco Shed page or the Latest News page without resorting to a search. (The BBC website must have the most advertised URL in UK, but they report that most people reach them through a search engine using: 'BBC' !)
Yes, I know 'Hits' is a relatively meaningless figure on its own, but I do publish month by month figures which include 'Pages' and 'Distinct Hosts Served' for the more aware enquirer. I am more interested in trends, but ONE MILLION is a nice big figure, isn't it? You'd be tempted to trumpet that for your websites, wouldn't you?
The main Index page of the website is the principal source of our success in search engine listings. It is designed to catch web spiders. I make no apology for the number of small pictures on it because it still loads faster than most website index pages. This is important to those many browsers who have to use dial-up connections, or have older computers: I want it to work for them too. (BBC webmasters please note!!)
'Simon' (no address reached me, so it's not copied to him) asked if our figures were a bit of a con. They are not. Why can't everyone share our joy ? Surely we all have in common our interest in flourishing steam railways ?
Happy New Year
Tony Wood
Webmaster
www.watercressline.co.uk
.........................................................

To: Tony Wood tonywood@watercresslinenospam.co.uk
Subject: MHR Webs No matter what the numbers actually mean, to say you have one million

Tony

The webmasters from GCR and WSR are very interested in yr statistics and have raised a few questions. Can you answer them directly
Here is the background
GCR
David Pladgeman
d.pladgeman@ntlworldnospam.com

No matter what the numbers actually mean, to say you have one million of anything always makes good press. I counted requests for 23 image files and a syle sheet from the index page - this might give 25 'hits' for one full load of the index page. I would be interested to hear where these hits come from. Are there particular sites which have a high level of referals? What is the most frequent search string to find your site? Wishing you all the best
David Pladgeman
Web site bod for Great Central Railway.

--- In Heritage-Railways@yahoogroupsnospam.com, Robert W Bristow r.bristow@w... wrote:
> The actual breakdown is shown on the website however here it is:-
>
> Figures in parentheses refer to the 7 days to 01-Jan-2003 02:18)
> Successful requests: 1,022,162 (205,586)
> Average successful requests per day: 33,012 (29,369)
> Successful requests for pages: 117,747 (23,560)
> Average successful requests for pages per day: 3,802 (3,365)
> Busiest day: 9/Dec/02 (4,652 requests for pages)
> Redirected requests: 110 (29)
> Distinct files requested: 1,896 (1,823)
> Distinct hosts served: 18,724 (4,323)
> Data transferred: 11.528 Gbytes (2.369 Gbytes)
> Average data transferred per day: 381.270 Mbytes (346.599 Mbytes)
> > Regards
> peckett1889 wrote: >
> >Having read the explanation for the 'million hits', am I the only one that thinks it's a bit of a con?
How about actual web visitor numbers?
> >

> >Simon
> >
> >--- In Heritage-Railways@yahoogroupsnospam.com, Robert W Bristow
> >r.bristow@w.. wrote:
Mid-Hants Railway (The Watercress Line)
Press Release
1st January 2003
============
GCR
stephen@the-edge-familynospam.freeserve.co.uk
--- In Heritage-Railways@yahoogroupsnospam.com, "David Pladgeman d.pladgeman@n..." d.pladgeman@n... wrote:
> No matter what the numbers actually mean, to say you have one million of anything always makes good press.
But how do web bods get stats like this? My web site counters seem to count the number of times a particular page is loaded, but does not count the loading of the images, style sheets, javascripts and so on. So, for all I know, my little ole web site might be getting TWO MILLION hits - in my dreams!
Steve :0)
www.wsr.org.uk - supporting Britain's longest and most popular heritage railway...
BTW good to see this list growing in popularity again...
....................................................................................
Seem to have set a Hare running !!
Regards
Bob Bristow

Mid-Hants Railway (The Watercress Line)
Press Release
1st January 2003

Mid Hants lands a million a month via the Internet

December 2002 generated over one million 'hits' for the Mid Hants Railway website. www.watercressline.co.uk is believed to be the first steam railway website in the world to receive such an astonishing figure, said Tony Wood, the man behind the website for the Mid Hants Railway.

The most popular pages, which generate about 25% of the traffic, are the Japanese version of our 'Thomas The Tank Engine' pages (he's big in Japan) and Japanese families are already booking for our 2003 'Thomas' events at Easter and in August. Their custom also benefits the local economy via other local businesses.

The most visited parts of the website are the illustrated pages covering the restoration and maintenance of the steam locomotives. Enthusiasts worldwide avidly follow in detail the work done in the Ropley Loco Shed, and revisit frequently so as not to miss anything. After all, an average large steam locomotive is made up of around 80,000 bits and pieces! There is a lot to follow!

www.watercressline.co.uk carries photo-news within hours of the event, making browsers feel part of the action, even though many are in Australia, Canada and other far away places. Emailed feedback suggests that this is one of the many reasons steam buffs prefer the Mid Hants virtual Railway website.

The website has been operated by Mid Hants Railway loco shed volunteer Tony Wood for 4 years. His efforts have been rewarded by attracting volunteers from various countries each year - drawn to the railway by the quality of the website when compared to other steam railways.

Mid Hants PLC chairman David Snow said that this major milestone really proves that the Watercress Line operating over 10 miles of scenic Hampshire really is a worldwide railway indeed!

Note for editors: 300 words approx

Further details:
www.watercressline.co.uk
e-mail: information@watercressline.co.uk
ring (44) 01962 733810, fax 01962 735448
or write to:
The Watercress Line
The Railway Station
Alresford
Hampshire
SO24 9JG

Press Contacts:
Tony Wood (Webmaster)
tonywood@watercressline.co.uk

David Snow (Chairman, Mid-Hants Railway plc)
davidsnow@watercressline.co.uk

(Thanks to Phil Marsh for this new improved Press Release)

To: Stephen Huddy
From: Tony Wood
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 14:17:26 +0000
Subject: Re: Mid-Hants Railway Website hits
At 23:03 23/12/2002 +0000, you wrote:
Hello Tony ....
My sites don't get anywhere near the number of visitors as yours does, what often amazes me though is how deep into the sites search engine spiders have gone, picking up on phrases that I hadn't expected them to. I think, as mine are very much dominated by photos, that the best way for me to improve search engine results is to add more alternative text to the photos along with fuller captions. I must be doing something right though as my page on the Quantock Hills comes above Quantocks On Line in a Google search for Quantock Hills!
................
You have to think like a web-spider and tune your website to get the best from their indexing system. I find meta-indexes next to useless, now that most people just use Google, but I still go through the motions for the likes of Dogpile ( .. no not that sort of motions!)
Enlist the help of friends and colleagues to say what search terms they would use in Google and which ought to guide them to your website. Make sure you use their exact wording (that's where 'Quantocks On Line' went wrong, I bet. Whoever would use that phrase in a search?!) somewhere in the early parts of relevant pages. You could put it in hidden text (in the same colour as your background) - but bear in mind that this will print in black if someone decides to make a dead-tree copy of that page, so make it sensible. Don't repeat yourself, as this makes webspiders go all unco-operative.
Avoid anything in the early parts of your pages which clogs a search result. When a spider lists your page, the last thing you want is for the browser to see stuff about their computer not accepting frames - that's a waste of the precious words which could have been enticing punters to your site!
Keep your site up-to-date. Spiders know if you've been dilligent in this, and score you accordingly.
Get lots of other relevant websites in your own Links page, and get them to return the favour. The number of other pages linked to yours is a high score factor in Google, and is the secret of Google's renowned success in finding the best sites.
Do searches often in as many search engines as you can, using likely search terms. Apply what you learn to your website.
Yes, it's laborious, but it does produce results (no pun intended that time). I'm still learning.
............
I'm amazed at the Japanese being so keen on Thomas, but they are a strange people at times! If you've got too many for your Thomas events the West Somerset welcomes Thomas on 5 & 6 July !!
............
E-mail the British Tourist Authority via their website www.visitbritain.com and ask to have your event mentioned in their Newsletters to travel trade professionals. These latter are the people whose tours could include your event. Give them lots of lead time (six months) and spoon-feed them because they are very busy people (on our behalf); don't just give them a web url as they won't do your job for you: give them full systematic detail about each event.
...........
Best regards
Tony Wood
Webmaster
www.watercressline.co.uk

To: stevehuddy@eurobellnospam.co.uk
From: Tony Wood
Date: 22nd December 2002
Subject: Mid-Hants Railway Website hits

Hello Steve
Bob Bristow copied your correspondence (below) to me, and I am impressed that you dug deep enough to get the true stats and the countries from which browsers look at our website.
About two years ago I spent the best part of six months fine-tuning the website to catch web-spiders and robots so as to boost our rating on search engine results pages. I watched the figures grow as a result.
I do my damnedest to maintain the site as a 'sticky' one; once they have visited the site, browsers do seem to return, and I think it important that they find something new and interesting when they do. The website is currently up to almost 80 megabytes (about 2400 files) so there is plenty for them to explore. My new camera can take web videos, and that of the Standard Five #73096 at speed approaching Basingstoke this month got 500 hits in the first day
My philosophy has always been to show photos of things an enthusiast might find interesting if he happened to be about at that time. So often in the past we found ourselves saying: 'If only you'd been here yesterday, you'd have seen ...' Now our website can show them what they missed, or what would have been inaccessible to them (e.g. something underneath a loco, or in the firebox, etc.)
Best of all is the e-mail correspondence I get from people researching technical matters to benefit other heritage railways, etc. We were recently able to help another railway with info about boiler water treatments after their guru had discovered Andy Netherwood's excellent notes on boilers on the 'Mutual Improvement' pages of our site at www.watercressline.co.uk/tw/pages/mutual.htm We have also been happy to help several modellers with details for their projects.
Since last summer we have seen a huge interest in the webpages about our Thomas the Tank Engine events at Easter and in August. The little video by Lenny (our children's entertainer) of a race between Thomas and Douglas still gets about 80 downloads a day! www.watercressline.co.uk/images/wizard2.mpg
I have recently been in correspondence with the very helpful British Tourist Authority people and their staff in Japan about the expected influx of customers from Japan for our forthcoming Thomas events (the latter have already started trying to book for our Easter events!) The BTA circulated details of our events to the Japanese travel trade, and there was an immediate further rise in hits on our website's pages in Japanese. I have been trying to interest other local tourist attractions (e.g. Weald & Downland Open Air Museum; Jane Austen's House in Chawton; Whitchurch Silk Mill) in these Japanese visitors so as to spread them a little more thinly around Hampshire and leave some Thomas tickets for our regular clientele!
One thing: I was careful to explain 'hits' in the preface to the statistics page. Most people seem to think 'hits' = 'people looking' and you were right to draw attention to this misconception. I usually explain that a page with four pictures on it makes five hits, but I'm still not sure that it's understood.
Please feel free to copy this e-mail to the newsgroup.
Best regards
Tony Wood
Webmaster
www.watercressline.co.uk
....................................................................................................................................................

> --- In Heritage-Railways@yahoogroupsnospam.com, "Peter Johnson" > wrote:
> > Stephen asked:
> > > I see the Mid Hants website says it has a million hits a month - which is incredible - I'd love to know how they do it as it is about 250 times more than mine.
> > > > Why don't you email their web master and ask how the figure is arrived at?
> > I didn't think of that! Their web site does "explain" the stats but being a simple Dorset yokel, I couldn't understand it, so can I be sure of understanding a reply from the MHR web master :-)
> > Steve
> www.wsr.org.uk

Looking at their stats page the "million" seems to refer to the total number of requests for pages and images, for instance in Nov they had 946,246 (not quite a million!) successful requests from 17,696 distinct hosts. I would say that the latter is the most accurate in terms of number of visits but they did indeed have nearly 1,000,000 "hits" in terms of files requested - I made it 20 files on the home page alone.
The strange thing is that 28.51% of those hits were from Japanese domains!
Steve Huddy
www.wsr.org.uk

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