Users or Visitors

Noun:

A person who uses or operates something, esp. a computer or other machine. A person who takes illegal drugs; a drug user.

Visitor: vis·i·tor / ˈvizitər /

Noun:

A person visiting a person or place, esp. socially or as a tourist.

So which of these do we want on our sites? Isn’t it obvious? And no, we don’t mean the Drug user…

It’s quite simple, the traffic we want, no matter what term Google Analytics may use, is users. Whereas a visitor goes to a site to be a digital tourist, a user is more deeply invested and involved in the content and functions of the stie in question. Take Orlebar Brown, for example: a visitor might show up, buy a pair of bulldogs, and leave. The user enters the site and buys the trunks as well, but on the way they stop over at the OB approved section, or they take a long look at the style advisor, or subscribe to one of the many spotify playlists on the site… or all of the above and more!

The trick, though, is not to gear a site towards users as opposed to visitors, but to effectively turn visitors into users. And while we are well aware of the average attention span of today’s digital explorers, it is important to entice the visitor with varied content and useful information beyond ‘here’s what we got, you gonna buy already?’ So that next time the user wants to know what’s the next cool travel destination, or what short would complement the ‘hitting the road’ playlist best, they’ll go to Orlebar Brown for another visit use, and perhaps buy some trunks on the way out.