Web Statistics

1
Web Statistics

• Texas Library Association Conference 2005
• April 7, 2005

2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Why keep web stats?
• What you can learn from web stats?
• What do you need to compile web stats?
• How do you analyze the results?
• NTRLS Example

3
Introduction

• Manager of Services, North Texas Regional Library
  System
• 8 years of experience in web stats
• 10 years as an information professional
• Website/Business Reference Consultant
• Adjunct Professor TWU SLIS
• Chair of the Automation and Technology Round
  Table

4
Why?

• Stats allow you to have a better grasp on how
  well your website is performing. It will answer
  the following questions
• Who is visiting your site?
• What are they viewing on your website?
• When are they visiting your website?
• Where do they come from?
• Why are they are visiting your site?

5
The Data

• The following data is compiled by most web
  servers
• Hits
• Entire Site
• Average Per Day
• Home Page
• Visitors
• Unique visitors
• Visitors who visited once
• Visitors who visited more than once

6
The Data

• Page Views
• Page views(impressions)
• Average per day
• Document views
• Visitor Sessions
• Average per day
• Average visitor session length
• Origin of visitor sessions

7
The Data

• The webserver log file is the record of website
  visitations. Below is an example of one line.
• 2003-10-07 000035 128.135.93.115 - 192.168.2.2
  80 GET /default_files/image0010.gif - 200
  Mozilla/4.0(compatibleMSIE6.0WindowsNT5.1)

8
Available Tools

• Software available at no cost
• Analog is a C-based Analysis tool
• Webalizer is a C-based Analysis tool
• AWStats is a Perl-based log
• NTRLS utilizes Analog
• AWStats apparently has more reports about visits
  than the other two tools including where the user
  entered and exited the site.
• Coombs, Karen A. Using Web Server Logs to Track
  Users Through the Electronic Forest. Computers
  in Libraries, V. 24, No.1 January 2005

9
Available Tools

• Retail Software
• Webtrends is a pricey solution that is the leader
  in the industry
• Watchfire QA is another example of a high priced
  solution
• 123LogAnalyzer gets a good rating from PC World
  and is inexpensive.
• Outsourcing
• SiteCatalyst 11 is an example of pricing ASP
  solution
• StatCounter.com is open-source ASP Solution

10
How to analyze the results..
11
Contact Information

• Adam Wright
• Manager of Services
• North Texas Regional Library System
• awright_at_ntrls.org
• Presentation available at http//www.ntrls2.org/TL
  A/