Hits and visitors

I have lost count of the number of companies that come to me proudly saying that they recieve thousands of "hits" a day but they can't understand why they aren't converting them into sales.

Unfortunately they have been told about these "hits" by their web companies but haven't actually been told that a hit does not = a visitor to the website. One visitor can create unlimited hits from a server so when your web company proudly tells you about your amazing number of "hits" ask them about the unique visitors, you'll probably be in for a nasty suprise! I don't know if these companies are misleading their clients knowingly or not and I'm a firm believer in innocent until proven guilty etc however, a web firm should really know the difference between a hit and a visit.