The first step is to not rely on a "hit counter" (ESPECIALLY the "free" hit counters. I have seen more malware on servers from free hit counters than from any other source). Counters are misleading and basically useless for determining the success of your website.
A lot of web hosts offer "Webalizer". You may also have the option to install additional server-side statistics software (example AWStats). Depending on the options offered by your hosting service, you can choose which tracking tool you want to use, or even enable more than one of them simultaneously. Though this may be overkill (The amount of information you get from Webalizer is enormous) and two statistics engines may consume too many server resources.
Figuring out Webalizer. (This is a partial list of the most useful stats only)
Viewing Statistics
The first thing you see when you log in to Webalizer, is a bar-chart showing the traffic history of your site. By default, this will show up to a year's worth of data. To view the details, click the month as listed in the chart below the table. Clicking on the appropriate month will provide a record of activity to your website.
Referrers: When a person clicks on a link from a different site that directs to yours, this is termed a referral. Webalizer lets you know which site was the source of the referral. In case they discovered you through a Google search, you are informed of this (you are not told what they were searching for though). Those who enroll in Google Analytics can find out what the search intent was, however it is not stored on the server. It is necessary to add a code snippet or script to every page footer that you want to monitor if you use Analytics.
Files and Hits: These statistics are the most misleading. Every time a URL is put in, it is considered a "hit". This is still true if the URL has stopped working or if it was misspelled. A "file" is every completed download whether it be pages, images, sounds, or videos.
Page: When a "hit" occurs on a genuine page, then it is called a page. (Images or flash objects that are not embedded in a page do not count. The names of pages will end in "html", "php", "asp", etc.).
Visitors: Recognition of website visitors is usually done by IP address. This may be misleading since there may be multiple users of a single IP address or a firewall might block their identity. Moreover, a single user could be registered twice in the count in the event that they take too long navigating between pages. Generally the time frame is restricted to a half-hour, however the host may alter this.
Webalizer registers "bot" activity on your website - such as Google's "spider" Internet crawler. You can find evidence of these in the "sites" segment of the statistics. It might amaze you when you discover the amount of spiders coming to your site and the amount of bandwidth they take up in doing so. If you want to prevent undesirable bots from visiting your site, make or alter the "robots.txt" file on your computer. While the majority of spiders will heed your request, nothing legally regulates this.
A lot of web hosts offer "Webalizer". You may also have the option to install additional server-side statistics software (example AWStats). Depending on the options offered by your hosting service, you can choose which tracking tool you want to use, or even enable more than one of them simultaneously. Though this may be overkill (The amount of information you get from Webalizer is enormous) and two statistics engines may consume too many server resources.
Figuring out Webalizer. (This is a partial list of the most useful stats only)
Viewing Statistics
The first thing you see when you log in to Webalizer, is a bar-chart showing the traffic history of your site. By default, this will show up to a year's worth of data. To view the details, click the month as listed in the chart below the table. Clicking on the appropriate month will provide a record of activity to your website.
Referrers: When a person clicks on a link from a different site that directs to yours, this is termed a referral. Webalizer lets you know which site was the source of the referral. In case they discovered you through a Google search, you are informed of this (you are not told what they were searching for though). Those who enroll in Google Analytics can find out what the search intent was, however it is not stored on the server. It is necessary to add a code snippet or script to every page footer that you want to monitor if you use Analytics.
Files and Hits: These statistics are the most misleading. Every time a URL is put in, it is considered a "hit". This is still true if the URL has stopped working or if it was misspelled. A "file" is every completed download whether it be pages, images, sounds, or videos.
Page: When a "hit" occurs on a genuine page, then it is called a page. (Images or flash objects that are not embedded in a page do not count. The names of pages will end in "html", "php", "asp", etc.).
Visitors: Recognition of website visitors is usually done by IP address. This may be misleading since there may be multiple users of a single IP address or a firewall might block their identity. Moreover, a single user could be registered twice in the count in the event that they take too long navigating between pages. Generally the time frame is restricted to a half-hour, however the host may alter this.
Webalizer registers "bot" activity on your website - such as Google's "spider" Internet crawler. You can find evidence of these in the "sites" segment of the statistics. It might amaze you when you discover the amount of spiders coming to your site and the amount of bandwidth they take up in doing so. If you want to prevent undesirable bots from visiting your site, make or alter the "robots.txt" file on your computer. While the majority of spiders will heed your request, nothing legally regulates this.
About the Author:
Stephen Grisham, Sr. is a copy writer for InfoServe Media, LLC. If you are looking for web site design, Houston has it. If you just need a few changes to an existing site, InfoServe Media also offers website maintenance.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment