Reference: Web Statistics
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From PlantX.net
This reference page will help you learn to read the various web statistics that are recorded for our member's websites.
As part of the PlantX.net services, we record every bit of activity that occurs on your website. We then run the log files nightly through two different programs that will accumulate and graph statistics. There are a number of similar features provided by each program, but each also offers something a little different.
Accuracy: The values recorded in the website log files are open to interpretation. The web logs can only record when a connected computer requests a page, picture, video or any other resource posted on the website. Although the request is accompanied by an Internet address (IP Address like 72.87.46.66), it cannot truly identify any particular person. In many cases, you have many people in an office sharing only one real IP address, so all of the office staff appear as only one connection in the web log. Likewise, a person may go through a proxy, and the proxy will make the request for them using a different IP address for each page, which appears in the statistics as a group of simultaneous visitors. Although these two cases are rare, they can sway the results.
Search Engines: Search engines also generate traffic on your website and it is recorded in the web logs. The stats reporting programs attempt to separate search traffic from user traffic, but it is merely a best effort. Some search engines do not identify themselves, which makes it difficult to eliminate them from the stats. The good thing is those that do "play nice" often report in the log the words used to find your site.
Contents |
Common Terms
- Hits - Any request made to the web server for information. This number is grossly exaggerated because every page, and each of the little pieces that draw the page, is considered a hit. Use this metric as just an overall sense of activity.
- Files - If the request results in a file being sent back, it is included in the Files counter. This includes the web page, pictures, video, music, or flash presentation.
- Pages - A count of only the HTML pages that were requested and delivered.
- Visits - An highly-subjective, interpreted value to measure the number of visitors to the site. A visit is counted when there is activity (hits, files, pages) from one particular IP address. Unfortunately, there is no message sent from a visitor that says they are leaving. Therefore, if there is a 20 minute lapse in activity recorded in the log file, it is considered the end of a visit, and the visit counter is incremented. Although it is subjective, it is much more tempered than hits, files or pages.
- Sites - A count of the unique sites that were visited.
- KBytes - Accumulates the volume of traffic measured in thousands (K) of bytes. If you think of hits and files as the number of requests, then think of KBytes as the size of the response. Web pages are relatively small when compared to pictures, and pictures are very small compared to video. Therefore, if the KBytes number is higher, and the visits remain relatively the same, you can assume they are looking at bigger things like pictures.
WebDruid Stats
WebDruid presents the stats in the most basic form. First, it shows the stats for the past 12 months; if you click on any particular month, it will show you the stat details for that month.
WebDruid Summary
The summary page provides, at a glance, the trend over the last 12 months. The upper half of the page is a usage graph, and the table below shows the actual values.
Things you should note on the graphs:
- The yellow bars show the relative number of visitors.
- The first yellow column in the table, Daily Avg Visits, shows the average number of visits per day.
- The greater the difference between the green (hits) and the dark blue (files) is often interpreted as repeat visitors. Repeat visitors will tend to 'hit' the web pages or pictures, but since their web browser has cached them from their previous visit, there is no reason to download them again, hence the hits go up, but the files counter does not.
- Compare the bar height of the visitors to the heights of the hits to get an idea if the visitors are looking at more or less information.
- If the visits graph is roughly the same as the KBytes graph, the visitors are spending roughly the same time browsing. A drop in hits or KBytes relative to visits, would indicate shorter visits.
WebDruid Monthly Detail
Clicking a specific month will take you to a page with more details and graphs for the specific month. Outlined below are some of the more useful features.
Daily Graph
Observe the daily graph to see trends within the month. The day of the month is listed below their respective bars in the graph. The discolored numbers represent the weekends. The table below the graph contains the quantitative details.
Hourly Graph
The hourly graph shows the relative activity within a 24 hour period. By observing the shape of the graph you can determine the time zones of your traffic. As the sample below shows, the majority of the traffic is between 8 am. and 4 pm., and a second tier between 4 pm. and 8 pm. This would indicate that a majority of the traffic is local as it fills in between "normal business hours". If the graph were flat, the source of traffic would be spread evenly over the globe.
Top Followed Paths and Users Flow
WebDruid offers two unique graphs to help you visualize how visitors are moving through your website. The first graph, the top followed paths, is a general summary of most traffic. The second graph reveals a more detailed look of their travels.
Advanced Web Statistics (AWStats)
AWStats shows graphs and tables that are very similar to those found in WebDruid, but the interface and detail are little more difficult. When the first page appears, it is a year-to-date summary of the website activity. If you click on a specific month in the Monthly History graph, the page will redraw and show only stats for the selected month.
Because of their differences in determining the meaning of a "visit" as well as their abilities to discern "viewed traffic" (real people?) and "not viewed traffic" (search engines), the values found in WebDruid and AWStats will not match.
The following is a list of features provided by AWStats, not available in WebDruid.
Hosts (Top 10)
AWStats will use the IP addresses found on each log entry to lookup the origin of the hits. This table helps you determine how relevant your stats are in terms of local. If you do business in Portland and all of your traffic is from the east coast, adjust your expectations accordingly.
Visit Durations
This is a very handy table that helps you distinguish between a passerby and a true visitor. Rather than the general rule that a visit is 20 minutes, this table attempts to quantify the length of each visit. You can decide for yourself how long a person must browse your website before you consider them a truly interested visitor, or someone that found your site on their way to their actual destination.
You will typically consider traffic from the first two, maybe three rows as just passing traffic. You will find that 75-80% of the traffic is there for less than two minutes, which means only 20% of all figures reported are actual interested visitors. Use this percentage to help you determine the real traffic values; ie. averaging 100 visitors per day and only 20% dwell at your site for two minutes or longer, then you must figure that you only average 20 visitors per day.
Search Keyphrases (Top 10)
This table summarizes the top 10 key phrases people used in search engines and consequently visited your website. It is invaluable in determining what people were looking for and what they used to successfully find your website.
