Featured Article - Understanding Your Web Site Statistics

There is a wealth of great information available to you if your web hosting company provides reporting or statistical information about your web site's traffic. These are commonly called "stats". Whenever someone visits your web site, information is collected which is saved for later analysis. This big bundle of information is saved in the form of "log files". The log files are very complicated and difficult to read so a more user-friendly version is provided instead. The information is the same, it is just translated into simple language.

There are many things that your stats will tell you, but here are a few of the basics. The very first thing you always want to note is the period, or date range. There's no sense getting excited because you had lots of visitors that week and then realizing that those numbers were really for several months. Regardless of which stats software your hosting company uses, the date range for the period should be near the top. Once you know which dates your stats cover, you can look at some other things. You've probably heard people mention the word "hits" in reference to web site traffic. There is a more accurate barometer of traffic, and that is called a "user session". A user session is one visitor to your web site. Hits are always higher than user sessions because they count other things. When you view a typical web page, there are many parts to it, for example, graphics, text, navigation links, etc. When a web page is shown, all these parts are "served" to the person viewing them. The log files record that there were several hits. For example, if someone views a web page with three photos and one graphic on it, that would count as four hits, but only one user session. You obviously only want to know how many times someone looked at your page, so always use the user session as the true measure of your site's traffic.

Another thing many people want to know is "Where is all this traffic coming from?" The word that you will see on your stats to describe this is called a "referrer". Let's say that someone was looking for information on hummingbirds, so they go to their favorite search engine, and after searching, they see a link to your site. They click on the link and arrive at your site. That user was "referred" to your site by that search engine. Other times, they may see a link to your site on other web sites, perhaps sites that you didn't even know had a link to you! You may also see something in your stats called a "blind referrer". This is a little different because it means that they didn't get to your site by way of another site, as in the example above. A blind referrer came straight to your site because they knew your "URL" (web address) from memory, or because they have it in their browser's bookmarks or favorites. It is exciting to see blind referrers because they are people who have returned after a previous visit. If your site is a business web site, blind referrers are your repeat business. The most compelling reason to update your site often with new information and products, is to keep people coming back again and again. Even on the web, it is true that it is easier to keep an existing customer happy than to get new ones. 

There are many other things that your stats will tell you about your traffic. You can tell by looking at "page view" information which individual pages within your web site were most often visited. "Session length" tells you how long each user stayed at your site. If visitors to your hummingbird site spend more time on the trivia page than on the page with photos, then that can give you ideas on what people are hoping to see, and you can update your site accordingly.

One of the best ways to really get familiar with your web site's stats is just to look around and see what's what. Keep in mind that stats are like weight loss. If you are on a diet, you won't really get the "big picture" by checking your weight every hour or every day. It's the same with your stats. Though you can check them as often as you like, it is usually best to look at them a week or a month at a time. There are normal fluctuations that you will notice, but the important patterns will reveal themselves over the longer term. 

I hope this has been helpful. If you have a web site, you should know how it's doing, because keeping an eye on your stats is one of the best ways to monitor the success of your web site. If your web hosting company doesn't offer statistical information to you, ask them about it.

- Angela Shinall

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