Site Statistics
One of the most powerful aspects of running a web site is the ability to generate traffic
reports. These reports show you which parts of your site are generating the most interest,
how many visitors you are getting, the trend of visitor numbers over the time your site
has been open, and much more.
Accessing the reports
The first step is to use your web browser to log into your control panel interface on your
virtual server. You will also need your Site Administrator username and password (included
with the email sent to you when you were set up.). For example, if your site is at
www.yoursite.com., you would point your browser to www.yoursite.com./siteadmin
and enter your username and password.
In the site administration interface you will see a button on the left called 'Web Usage'.
Clicking this will take you to a page with links to various traffic reports, as well as a
number of summary items such as when the reports were last run, the period covered, page
requests and total requests ('hits'), etc.also, we have installed Webalizer
Version 1.30 You may access this at
www.yoursite.com./stats
Hits versus page views
Hits can be a deceiving measure of traffic, because they include every file served from
your site. Each graphic counts as a separate file, so if you have a page with 9 graphics
on it there will be 10 'hits' counted every time a visitor views the page (one for each
graphic plus one for the HTML page itself). The figure given for 'HTML page requests'
shows the number of distinct pages that have been viewed, while 'Total requests' is all
hits including graphics. This number may actually be lower than the number of people that
have viewed your site: most ISPs 'cache' web pages so that if several users from the same
ISP look at a page within a few hours of each other it is only retrieved from the web
server once, then delivered from local cache at the ISP. The web server has no way of
knowing how many times the page is accessed from the caches of various ISPs, so the actual
number of viewers may in fact be higher than reported.
Web content, ranked by number of requests
Probably the most useful report, it shows which files are most accessed. Look at the first
file listed - that is the single most accessed file on your site. Working down through the
list will show you what your visitors are least and most interested in, perhaps giving you
an indication of where to focus your efforts in the future. Or it may show that certain
parts of the site may be a little hard to find, and the site navigation may need tweaking
to bring traffic into those areas.
Request statistics, for report period
This report shows overall traffic trends, summarized by period. The default display shows
the total hits each day broken down into 5 minute intervals. The arrow buttons at the
bottom let you change the resolution - click right to see the trend in hourly intervals,
daily or weekly. Keep clicking and you'll then see totals by hour and by day, showing the
time of day or day of week that your site is most busy.
Web pages referred to your web site
This report is extremely important when it comes to marketing your site. Whenever a web
browser follows a link that loads a page on your site (for example, following a link
inside your site, or a link into your site from a personal homepage, supplier, etc) the
server records where the visitor came from. The top lines in this report will inevitably
be your own site of course, because each time a visitor clicks a link from one page to
another inside your site it is counted as a 'referrer', but the interesting stuff comes a
bit further down. Look for listings of personal homepages, your business associates,
search engines, industry sites, etc - that is where your visitors are coming from. By
investigating how visitors find your site you can better formulate methods to promote it
in the future.
Access by domain
A breakdown of the top level domains used by your site visitors, this report will help you
determine where in the world your visitors are coming from. Are there lots of '.edu'
domains listed? Then you probably have lots of visitors who are students or teachers. Is
'.br' the highest domain on the list? Then you know that Brazilians love your site. Keep
in mind that the domain of many visitors cannot be determined, and some domains may be
misleading - for example '.com' domains are often American, but not always. TLDs (Top
Level Domains) like .com may be located anywhere in the world. Still, this report gives a
good idea of the general overall trend for your site.
Web browsers accessed this Cobalt server
While it is not very interesting to most people, these figures are very important to site
developers. They show what browsers and types of computers are accessing the site, which
allows better planning for future development work. If you see that 90% of your visitors
are on version 4 or better of either Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, you could
perhaps put more emphasis on newer technologies like Macromedia Flash. If you have a large
user base on the text only Lynx browser, though, better put those plans on hold.
Can I have a counter on my web site?
Yes! The easiest way to add a counter is to cut an paste code in the html of
your web page.
A real nice counter and code can be found at www.counter.com
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