I’m trying to create an Excel spreadsheet that calculates page views, but can’t figure out how to write it as a formula.
For starters, assume I have 25 web pages.
Secondly, assume that each page attracts 10,000 visitors.
Lastly, assume that each of these visitors will then view 5 additional pages.
Assuming that page views are evenly distributed, how to I calculate the number of visitors per page.
(For illustrative purposes, imagine a site like Wikipedia. A user clicks a link to Abraham Lincoln’s biography, then follows one to an article on stovepipe hats, followed by a page on wood burning stoves, then lumberjacks and finally Paul Bunion.)
I suspect I might be using the head slapping emoticon in the near future.
Is the formula as simple as ((25*10,000)*5)/25? What’s still throwing me is that as the number of pages grows, the number of views per page doesn’t increase. Regardless of how many pages there are, there are always 50,000 views. That doesn’t sound right.
Well, with the stipulations that there are x ammount of visitors, and y pages per visitor, the number won’t change. Notice when you increase the number of pages, you’re also dividing by a larger number. In reality, with more pages, you’ll likely get more visitors, or they’ll look at more than 5 pages.
Based on your assumptions: You have 25 pages, each of which generates 10,000 [unique] visitors: 10,000 x 25 = 250,000 visitors. Each visitor will look at 6 total pages (the original page plus 5 others): 250,000 x 6 = 1,500,000 views over 25 pages = 60,000 hits per page.
Simplified Formula: =[number of unique visitors per page] x [number of TOTAL pages each unique visitor will look at]
so, [[number of pages]*[number of visitors per page]*6]/[number of pages]
Right, because the number of views per page is evenly distributed among the pages, as stipulated. Every time you add a page, you add 60,000 page views to the total.
First, this is not an Excel problem, it’s an algebra problem.
Do you want to count the number of *unique visitors * to the pages, or the total views of a page? The latter will be bigger if the same person visits the same pages more than once.
Let’s assume the latter, since it’s easier to count.
Well, that *is * right because you are multiplying the number of visitors per page times the number of landing pages times the number of additional pages, and then dividing back out the number of landing pages. Your results is the views for the collection of additional pages (not views per page). More pages, more visitors, same average views per page.
I’m not convinced that your description really represents what your problem is, though. After all, if you are assuming up front how many views there are going to be, then you know the answer immediately. Are you really trying to set up a spreadsheet that will record the *actual * number of views and then calculate the averages? Or are you trying to set up a model to estimate what will happen, given an *assumption * of 10,000 views per landing page?
I thought the calculation was going to be more complicated, because I was way over thinking it. While it would still have been an algebraic problem, I thought that expressing it in Excel would require special notation.
No, it does. That’s why I’m glad there’s an internet. If I’d asked someone in person I’d’ve received a real smack to the head instead of a virtual one.