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Webalizer Stats FAQ
If your domain does not have SSL enabled, view your webstats at the following URL:
http:www.yourdomain.whatever/webstat
If your domain has SSL enabled, view your webstats at the following URL: https:www.yourdomain.whatever/webstat
Hits- Any request made
to the server which is logged, is considered a 'hit'. The requests can be for
anything... html pages, graphic images, audio files, cgi scripts, etc... In
other words if you have 1 page and 5 graphics on it, that will count as 6 hits.
This number represents the total number of requests that were made to the server
during the specified report period. It is a poor way to judge your site traffic.
Files- Some requests made to the server, require that the server then send something
back to the requesting client, such as a html page or graphic image. When this
happens, it is considered a 'file' and the files total is incremented. The relationship
between 'hits' and 'files' can be thought of as 'incoming requests' and 'outgoing
responses'.
Pages- Any HTML document, or anything that generates an
HTML document, would be considered a page. This does not include the other stuff
that goes into a document, such as graphic images, audio clips, etc... This
number represents the number of 'pages' requested only, and does not include
the other 'stuff' that is in the page. What actually constitutes a 'page' can
vary from server to server. The default action is to treat anything with the
extension '.htm', '.html' or '.cgi' as a page. A lot of sites will probably
define other extensions, such as '.phtml', '.php3' and '.pl' as pages as well.
Some people consider this number as the number of 'pure' hits... I'm not sure
if I totaly agree with that viewpoint. Some other programs (and people :) refer
to this as 'Pageviews'.
Sites- Each request made to the server comes from a unique 'site', which
can be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address. The 'sites' number
shows how many unique IP addresses made requests to the server during the reporting
time period. This DOES NOT mean the number of unique individual users (real
people) that visited, which is impossible to determine using just logs and the
HTTP protocol (however, this number might be about as close as you will get).
Visits- Whenever a request is made to the server from a given IP address (site), the
amount of time since a previous request by the address is calculated (if any).
If the time difference is greater than a preconfigured 'visit timeout' value
(or has never made a request before), it is considered a 'new visit', and this
total is incremented (both for the site, and the IP address). The default timeout
value is 30 minutes (can be changed), so if a user visits your site at 1:00
in the afternoon, and then returns at 3:00, two visits would be registered.
Note: in the 'Top Sites' table, the visits total should be discounted on 'Grouped'
records, and thought of as the "Minimium number of visits" that came from that
grouping instead. Note: Visits only occur on PageType requests, that is, for
any request whose URL is one of the 'page' types defined with the PageType option.
Due to the limitation of the HTTP protocol, log rotations and other factors,
this number should not be taken as absolutely accurate, rather, it should be
considered a pretty close "guess".
URL- Uniform Resource Locator. All requests made to a web server need to
request something. A URL is that something, and represents an
object somewhere on your server, that is accessable to the remote user, or results
in an error (ie: 404 - Not found). URLs can be of any type (HTML, Audio, Graphics,
etc...).
Daily Statistics
-This provides valuable information about the day of the month that
your site gets the highest site traffic. This is particularly relevant if you
are interested in the success of a marketing piece that you have done and want
to see when traffic picked up most and how much that was.
Hourly
Statistics - This
provides valuable information about the time of day that your site gets the
highest site traffic.
Total URLs
- The
most accessed URLs on your site and how many times they were accessed. This
is a great way to see what your most popular and relevant pages are.
Total URLs
By KBytes-This
may be valuable if you want to find out how often a document is downloaded,
as a measure of an email campaign. For example if you upload a document into
Docubrary, then put that link in an eBlast, you can see how often this file
was downloaded by looking at this stat.
Total Entry Pages-This shows the first page visitors are hitting
when they come to your site.
Total Exit Pages-This shows the last page people are on before
they leave your site. This is good to tell where people might be being lost
in the sales process. It is never recommended to send a visitor off of your
site with a link. However if you are doing so, that will register here.
Total Sites
-
The IP address or Internet addresses of your visitors. This is a place where
sometimes you can catch competition that is checking you out. A Site
is a remote machine that makes requests to your server, and is based on the
remote machines IP Address/Hostname.
Total Sites
By KBytes -
This is who visited you the most. A Siteis a remote machine that makes
requests to your server, and is based on the remote machines IP Address/Hostname.
Total Referrers
-
This tells you how people are moving into your site as well as how they are
moving through your site. Many of these will be your own site. However if you
see links from other sites on this section, that is because they have linked
to you.
Total Search
Strings -
The most valuable section to look at if you are interested in search engine
optimization. This will tell you the search strings that people are using to
find you. This is valuable if you are doing Pay Per Click(PPC) advertising and
want to get ideas for search strings that are being used to bring you up on
search engines.
Total User Agents- This is a fancy name for browsers. Netscape,Opera,
etc.. are all User Agents, and each reports itself in a unique way to
your server. Keep in mind however, that many browsers allow the user
to change it's reported name, so you might see some obvious fake names in the
listing.
Note:Only
available if that information is contained in the server logs.
Total Countries
-This is based on the top level domain of the requesting site.
This is somewhat questionable however, as there is no longer strong enforcement
of domains as there was in the past. A .COM domain may reside in the US,
or somewhere else. An .IL domain may actually be in Isreal, however it
may also be located in the US or elsewhere. The most common domains seen
are .COM (US Commercial), .NET (Network), .ORG (Non-profit Organization)
and .EDU (Educational). A large percentage may also be shown as Unresolved/Unknown,
as a fairly large percentage of dialup and other customer access points
do not resolve to a name and are left as an IP address.
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