Aside from all sounding like activities that take place at a Saturday night college party, these terms explain different ways of measuring a website’s traffic and, subsequently, a website’s success. This process of formulating website tracking into quantifiable data is called “metrics”, and with everyone using the new Web 2.0, quantifying a website’s success is trickier than ever. How many visitors does your site have each day? Each month? How many page views? What is the average time each visitor spends per session? What’s your site’s click through rate (CTR)? Is anyone subscribing to your RSS feed?

All these questions are pointing to one underlying concern: is my website doing what it is supposed to do? Obviously, website success looks much different to a blogger than it does to an industrial manufacturer. A professional blogger will put more weight in how much time each visitor spends reading content and how many RSS subscriptions she has, while a manufacturer wants to know how many online quotes are being submitted and how many unique visitors view his “Capabilities” page. These qualitative methods of measurement are part of the industry’s shift towards “engagement metrics”. But before we get too deep into this new mind-bog of “squishy” analytics, let’s iron out some definitions.

Hits – Not, according to the gurus, at all an accurate measurements of how many visitors your site receives or whether those visits are doing you any good. A hit is what’s registered each time a request is sent for your HTML page, or the page’s images. If you have a web page with 60 separate images on it, one visit to the site will register 61 hits. There are other reasons why this is not an accurate measurement of user quantity or quality, but we’ll leave them to the guys in IT.

Visitors – Also referred to as “sessions”, what we’re talking about here is a gross count of site visitors. Visitors are counted each time someone comes to your site, whether it’s a visitor’s first time that day or their 30th.

Unique User/Visitor – A visitor from a unique IP address. Users who repeat their visit to a site from the same address are only counted once, so a unique user count can be lower than a “session” or “visitor” count. Tracking unique users is valuable not only for gathering quantitative data (how many people visit a site each day), but for gathering more qualitative data from the user as well. How many pages does a unique user view? How long? These questions can help determine a website’s success or failure, and they can point to where improvement is needed.

Page Views/Page Per User Count – The number of pages on your site a visitor clicks through – i.e., the amount of material a visitor actually absorbed. Page views are an important tool, as they can measure qualitative results as well as quantitative. High page per user counts indicate people are finding your website worthwhile instead of “bouncing” back to different sites. A low page per user count indicates that a site is poorly written, poorly developed or lacking in engaging content.

Impressions – These can refer to either “ad impressions” or “page impressions”, which are basically fancy terms to describe each time a user views a page or banner ad. Impressions are usually more important when online advertisements are involved; advertisers attempt to measure their return on an ad based in part on the number of “impressions” an ad receives. While “page views” count the number of pages a unique user clicks through, “impressions” count the number of times a user is exposed to a specific message.

Click Through Rate (CTR) – Also an advertising term, comparing the number of users who click on advertisements to the total number of visitors, or sessions. E.g., if my blog has 100 visitors in a day, and 1 of those visitors clicks on my banner ad for canvas bags, the click through rate for my labels banner ad is 1%, an average CTR.

While all these terms are useful in determining certain areas of success or failure, unique user count and page view count can help paint an overall picture of your website’s success. When compared, these two metrics often provide qualitative data about what your users like – or dislike – about your site. If your unique user count is high, you’re doing a great job promoting the site through SEO, SEM, social networks and so forth. If unique user count is low, you probably need to create a Digg account, update your metatags and get friendly with Wikipedia. High page per user counts, on the other hand, indicate that your content is informative and well designed, engaging users to browse through your site looking for more. For business to business websites, measuring request for quote form submissions could easily tie into page per user analysis. If your page per user counts are low, you know your content needs to be reworked to be more engaging, informative and easy to use. Low page views with a high user count means you’re bringing people in but aren’t engaging them, and instead of staying they’re bouncing to other, more informative sites.

Comparing unique user counts to page views can show you whether you need to focus on SEO and promotion or whether changes are needed in content and site design. There are more extensive methods used to analyze a site’s quality, however. “Engagement metrics” attempt to measure some of the flurried, “new media” activity of the new Web 2.0 by determining whether or not a unique user is truly “engaged” in her interaction with your website. A few ways of determining user engagement include:

1) Whether a user returns to a site within a small time span
2) How long a user spends browsing a page
3) How long and how frequently a user views “critical” site content – “critical” site content is any information which helps your website satisfy its goal. If your goal is to sell products or generate RFQs, your online product catalog might be considered a “critical” page
4) How many visitors go directly to your URL (bookmarks are a plus!)
5) How many users have subscribed to your RSS feed (if you have one)

Although it’s possible to analyze this type of “qualitative” data, it’s difficult to capture the many variables which come with website analytics. Who is this site’s audience? What do I want users to do once they arrive on my site? What basic message do I want to impress on users? These questions are not new to marketing – they’ve been essentials for a long time. It’s easy to become distracted by all the various facets of SEO, analytics and user-optimization while forgetting the main goal: getting your website to do what it’s supposed to do. If your site was created to generate sales leads, then sales leads are the best metric by which to measure the site’s success. Click through rates, visitor counts and hits aren’t what you’re ultimately trying to get – you want the business of the people those counts are attached to. Metrics are great tools, but the tools can’t replace the product.

So, if you’ve gotten too tangled up in analytics lately, take a breath and a long look at your homepage. Try to remember why it’s there. When you remember, analytics will be there to help shape the site into what it should be.

The post Page Views, Impressions, Engagement and Understanding Site Metrics for B2B Websites first appeared on IQS Newsroom.

Paper core is the inside material made from wood pulp and other materials that go inside wrapped tubes to provide support and stability to wrapped materials like fabric, paper, or plastic. You can find paper cores on nearly every wrapped object, including toilet paper, paper towels, household tape, paint rollers, and many other common household tools and supplies. Even factories and commercial companies use paper cores in their businesses for a variety of storage and industrial uses. The process of creating paper core is interesting, and most paper core manufactures use a similar process to create their cores. If you ever get the chance to tour a paper-tube manufacturing plant, it makes for an interesting and informative field trip.

First the paper core manufacturers collect wood pulp and previously-recycled products in a large container. The factory breaks the paper pieces down into tiny pulp-like pieces with a large machine. The paper pieces then are mixed with different chemicals to make the paper mushy, smooth, strong, and evenly-colored.

The mushy pulp travels along a conveyor to remove some of the moisture. The pulp sheets are then wrapped into the desired tube shape and size and dried completely. Once the pulp is dry, it maintains the final tube shape. Sometimes the factory will coat the inner pulp core with a thin layer of cardboard or other material for additional strength. The tube is either cut into smaller sizes, or sent as-is to another factory to be used as an internal core for a variety of materials.

For the most part, this creation process takes just a few hours from start to finish. Paper cores are one of the most environmentally friendly packing materials available for use today, and provide both strength and practicality in a variety of industrial and household uses around the world.

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Coin wraps are a necessity in many businesses, because they easily contain a specific amount of coins in each sleeve. These coin sleeves make it easier to transport money, and also take up less space than loose coins. Paper coin wraps are an alternative to larger coin banks, which are impractical for cash registers and other small storage spaces where space is limited.
Each coin roll holds a specific amount of coins and money. Penny wraps hold 50 coins, nickel wraps hold 40, dime wraps hold 50 coins, and quarter wraps hold 40 coins. A penny sleeve is worth 50 cents, a nickel sleeve is worth two dollars, a dime sleeve is worth 5 dollars, and a quarter sleeve is worth 10 dollars.
Loading a coin sleeve is a little harder than simply slipping coins into a coin bank, but the process is not difficult. All you have to do is close the end of the wrap, slide the coins into place, and make sure they lay flat, rather than on their sides. When you have placed the appropriate number of coins inside the sleeve, simply crimp the paper around the top coin to secure the wrap. Many machines will load the sleeves automatically, which is a huge time saver. To use a coin sleeve, simply crack the paper open along the center of the wrap and slide the coins out.
Most coin sleeves are made from recycled paper, which makes then an environmentally friendly option for transporting and storing change. Paper coin sleeves are much more environmentally friendly than plastic sleeves, which can also be harder to open as well. If you want a reliable way to store and count coins that is also good for the earth, paper coin sleeves are the way to go every time.

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In today’s world of modern manufacturing, machines are often used to replace human workers. In the past, humans had to complete all industrial manufacturing tasks, simply because the technology of machines was not high enough to complete delicate and complicated tasks. Today’s computers and robots, however, are much more  intelligent and can replace human workers in many different tasks.
When possible, manufacturing companies are turning to robot workers instead of human employees. The cost of employing human workers continues to rise, even in previously-inexpensive countries, like China and India.
Industrial sewing companies have actually used machines and robots in manufacturing for longer than many other companies. Even hundreds of years ago, large loom machines and other fabric weaving machines were used to quickly manufacture large batches of fabric.
However, until recently, human workers usually had to complete the task of actually sewing the different elements of a garment or other fabric product together. Most machines did not have the precision necessary for complex sewing projects. Today’s industrial sewing machines, however, are much smarter than the machines of the past. Many industrial sewing companies are replacing expensive human workers with robotic machines that complete much of the work that humans completed in the past. Some factories in China and other countries around the world are using a large number of machines with just a few human workers to facilitate the production of the robot machines.
What does this mean for the future of industrial sewing? As technology progresses, it is likely that machines and robots will soon take over many of the basic sewing jobs that humans once completed. Even now, machines are used to embroider fabric, create lace and other fabrics, knit and crochet, cut out fabric pieces, and even sew some pieces together automatically. Human workers will switch gears away from manual sewing labor and become more like managers over the robot machines that complete most of the work.

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Tarps have been around for hundreds of years. The original use for a tarp was on the high seas. Sailors used to cover sheets of canvas in tar to protect goods from salt spray and water damage during transit. Over the years, the tarp has had several various uses, but usually remained as a way to keep dirt, water, and other contaminates off something, whether it was furniture, people, dirt, or any other number of things.
Over the years, different materials have been used to make the tarp. Tarps have been made from nylon, canvas, cotton, plastic, polyester, and even metal. Throughout history, the tarp has had its ups and downs. Here are some highlights from the tarp’s history from its earliest days until now.
1400-1600
The tarp was used mainly at sea as a way to protect sailors and the items they transported across the seas. The original name for the tarp was the “tarpaulin.” This name came from combining the two words “tar” and “pall.” The pall was the fabric used by the sailors as a cover.
1600-1900
The tarp moved inland. Many people used tarps for protecting items during travel, such as for covering wagons during moves. During the 1700s, the tarp became used for land travel as a tent covering. The waterproof surface of the tarp helped keep travelers and soldiers warm.
1900-Present
During the industrial revolution, the tarp received major changes. The tarp was made from a variety of materials, such as plastics, polyester, rubber, and a variety of other materials. People now used the tarp for nearly anything, from covering the floor to prevent paint splatters to keeping leaks off a roof until the rain stopped. Today, people use the tarp for a variety of uses, including camping, construction, transportation, and protection.

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Palletizers – Ouellette Machinery Systems Inc.	Palletizers – Columbia Machine, Inc.	Palletizers – Columbia Machine, Inc.

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Palletizers – Ouellette Machinery Systems Inc.	Palletizers – Columbia Machine, Inc.	Palletizers – Columbia Machine, Inc.

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Every production method has a most basic level of operation, the level that started the trend or made the process popular enough to want to create alterations for specific applications. When it comes to the die cutting industry, the most basic technique involves steel rule dies. Working like a stamp, but one with sharp edges that pierces all the way through a material, steel rule dies are able to quickly and efficiently create die cut shapes for a variety of applications used in many industries.
Although known as the conventional die cutting process, steel rule dies are able to create complex shapes in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Called “steel rule dies” because they are almost always made of steel, the material strength of the die as well as its razor sharp edges allow it to pierce through a many materials. Rubber, plastic, leather, fabric, thick foam and softer metals such as aluminum are all commonly produced by way of steel rule dies. Industries that benefit from the utilization of this method include the automotive, aerospace, medical, textile, electronics, printing and packaging industries, as well as others. The fact that such a machine is easily able to be incorporated into mass production lines is another reason why this basic method is so popular.
The general set-up of a die cutter utilizing steel rule dies involves a die board where the sheet of material being cut is laid. It is equipped with a layer of rubber, which makes it easier to pop out the product from the die once the cuts have been made. How the machine applies the pressure of the steel rule die varies from manual operation for limited applications to CNC machines whose direction, speed and control allows a steel rule die to cut on a mass production level.

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Palletizers – Ouellette Machinery Systems Inc.	Palletizers – Columbia Machine, Inc.	Palletizers – Columbia Machine, Inc.

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