Getting Started

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Getting Started
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Outline

• Key points
• Architecture Overview
• Data Sources
• Web Site Structure
• Metrics
• Cookies
• Zero Second Visits
• Form Submission
• Pro Processor
• Reporting Engine
• Pro Viewer

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ClickTracks Concepts .NLF files

• .nlf files are the equivalent of log files
• ClickTracks converts log files into a proprietary
  format called .nlf, which stands for Normalized
  Log Files. This process involves various steps
• All images are stripped from the logs to reduce
  the size
• All requests are put in a highly structured
  format that is perfectly consistent and with no
  un-structured request left in
• Data is reformatted in some cases to be more
  easily read by the computer
• The files are compressed
• By the time log files are converted to .nlf
  files, they are about 1 to 2 the size of the
  original log file.

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Server Concepts Data Sources
There are two potential sources for traffic data
web log files or JavaScript In some
cases it may be necessary to have a blend of the
two. For example if you have log files for your
web site, but your shopping cart or booking
engine is a 3rd party
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Log files vs. JavaScript

When a web page is requested, it could be
delivered by the web server, by a an ISPs proxy
server, or by the browsers own cached pages.
But the JavaScript in the page code will get
executed either way, so the page view is always
recorded.

Log Files
Web Server
Internet Service Provider
Browser
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Server Concepts Log file formats

• The following fields are required by ClickTracks
• Date and Time the moment the visitor hit the
  site
• Client IP Address the visitors connection to
  the Internet their computers address
• Requested file the page they requested
• Query string if the page is dynamic, the query
  string defines the page content
• User Agent the web browser they are using
• Referrer the website they were on just prior to
  this one where they clicked on a link and got to
  your site
• Status code successfully loaded, not found,
  redirected, etc.
• Cookie data stored on the visitors computer
  (preferable, but not required)
• Virtual Host (Apache) or Server Name/Server IP
  (IIS) only applies to multi-domain logs

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Module 1 ClickTracks Architecture
Pro Processor
 
The Processing Engine Administrator is the user
interface through which Datasets are created and
managed. Once a dataset has been established
through the Server Administrator, the ClickTracks
Service will continue to gather data from it's
raw data source and process that data on a
scheduled basis.  
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Module 1 ClickTracks Architecture
Reporting Engine
 
The Reporting Engine allows users to set up Users
and User Groups, Archive their site, set the
Server Mail Server Configuration, as well as
schedule tasks Automated Email Reports Site
Archiving
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Pro Viewer
 
The Pro Viewer can be installed on any users
desktop. There are two Reporting Modes. Instant
Reports allows the user to view static reports.
Custom Analysis allows users all of the
functionality of the Pro Viewer.
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Pro Viewer
Instant Reports mode lets the user view HTML
reports instantly
 
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Pro Viewer
Custom Analysis is the interactive way of using
ClickTracks
 
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Website Concepts URL Rewrites
Some sites use URL rewriting tools such as Apache
mod_rewrite (http//httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/
mod_rewrite.html) or ISAPI rewrite for IIS
(http//www.isapirewrite.com/) When rewriting
URLs you must either Capture the rewritten URL
in the log files Use JDC (ClickTracks
Hosted) Since the URL that displays in the
address bar will not match what is in the log
files
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Website Concepts URL Structure
A URL, (Uniform Resource Locator) is the unique
identifier that your browser sends out to request
a specific web page. Lets explore the
components http//www.bobsfruitsite.com/citrus/o
range.php?varietynavelfarmjoes http//
the Internet protocol or tool
type www.bobsfruitsite.com the domain
name/citrus/orange.php the path and
filename ?varietynavelfarmjoes the query
string, or parameters The first two of these
components are required. Parameters are
optional. For more information on the URL
structures, see http//www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/
url-spec.html
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Basic Concept - URL Parameters
If a web site is dynamic (pulls content from a
database) the URL will be made up of both the
page name, as well as parameters that affect the
content of the page. For example http//www.bobs
fruitsite.com/fruit.php?id1topicDescription rep
resents the Apple page on Bobs Fruit Site.
However, if you change the URL
to http//www.bobsfruitsite.com/fruit.php?id2to
picDescription you will see the Banana page.
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Parameter Masking
Parameter masking tells ClickTracks which
parameters to factor in to determine page views.
Consider the following two URLs http//www.bobsf
ruitsite.com/fruit.php?id1sourcegoogle http//
www.bobsfruitsite.com/fruit.php?id1
If the parameter source is masked, then these
will be considered the same page, If that
parameter is not masked, these will be considered
two different pages. Parameters that are checked
are masked.
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Page Structures and Number of Pages
How you construct and maintain your website can
make a big difference in terms of the number of
pages it appears to have from the perspective of
web analysis. This is an issue because

• It takes longer and requires more memory to
  process larger numbers of pages.
• At various points in the application it is
  difficult to display so many pages

Of course, if your site really is very large,
there is nothing that can be done about that.
But if you are not careful with your use of
parameters in the construction of your web pages,
a relatively modest website can look huge to a
web analytics program. Consider the following
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Page Structures and Number of Pages
http//www.bobsfruitsite.com/fruit.php?id1 If
there are 10 different types of fruits, you
potentially have ten pages. http//www.bobsfruits
ite.com/fruit.php?id1varietymacintosh If there
are 10 different varieties per fruit, you
potentially have one hundred pages. http//www.bo
bsfruitsite.com/fruit.php?id1varietymacintosht
opicrecipe If there are 10 different topics, you
potentially have one thousand pages. http//www.b
obsfruitsite.com/fruit.php?id1varietymacintosh
topicrecipefarmjoes If there are 10 different
farms, you have ten thousand pages.
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Parameter Masking Key Points

• Parameter masking only affects the way
  ClickTracks defines distinct pages
• Masking does not ignore parameters, it rolls
  them up to the page level
• You can still report on the top values (Internal
  Search Report) and create a label of a masked
  parameter
• You can always unmask parameters and simply
  re-analyze the data
• Duplicate links may be caused by a content
  defining parameter being masked
• ClickTracks processes much faster if proper
  parameter masking is in place
• You must unmask a parameter for it to be counted
  in a stage in the funnel report

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Tracking Parameters
In order to track the visits originating from a
campaign, that campaign needs to have a unique
identification contained in the log file. In
other words, they need to be added to campaign
destination URLs.
The most effective way to ensure that a landing
page is unique is to include a tracking
parameter(s) Now Bob will know where that click
originated http//www.bobsfruitsite.com/?sourceg
oogleadgroupstrawberries This campaign will be
easy to distinguish from any other campaign as
long as the value for the source parameter is
unique. Therefore, when setting up campaigns in
any campaign that you wish to track, you should
assign at least one tracking parameter. More on
tracking parameters is available in the article
Zen and the Art of Tracking Parameters,
available at http//way.clicktracks.com/help/en/
an/zenandtheartoftrackingpa.htm
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Tracking Parameters
Why are tracking parameters crucial? That is the
one field shared in common between the two sets
of data the web log data and the campaign data.
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Tracking Parameters

• Necessary for distinguishing campaign visitors
  from non campaign visitors
• Used for Email Campaigns, Banner Ads, Affiliate
  Programs PPC (sourceemail or sourcebanner,
  etc.)
• Landing pages/alternate domains for print
  campaigns
• Campaigns can be configured in ClickTracks either
  based on tracking parameters or unique landing
  pages
• Remember, just because you have a Google AdWords
  campaign, that does not mean that all of your PPC
  traffic will come from Google.com
• Google Yahoo have MANY partners

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Tracking Parameter Formats
Depending on the type of page, the tracking
parameters should be set up as follows When
sending them to your home pageAppend the URL
with tracking parameters beginning with a
slashwww.bobsfruitsite.com/?sourcegoogleagstra
wberries When sending them to an internal
page Simply add the question mark and the
parameters www.bobsfruitsite.com/index.php?source
googleagstrawberries When sending them to a
dynamic page Simply add an ampersand and the
parameters www.bobsfruitsite.com/index.php?id1so
urcegoogleagstrawberries
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Masking Tracking Parameters
Before Masking
After Masking
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Campaign Granularity
You can define campaigns at the level of ad
groups or keywords. If you define them at the ad
group level, many keywords may be associated with
the same campaign. You might not need to
separate campaign in ClickTracks for each and
every keyword you purchase. Keyword information
is passed from search engines to your site
anyway, and campaign information is available in
the Search Report, broken down to a keyword
level. ClickTracks advises defining your
campaigns at the Ad Group level, based on
meaningful concepts or creative content, where
many keywords may be incorporated into a single
campaign. This will result in fewer campaigns to
analyze and give you another perspective, the
concept for each campaign Avoid analysis
paralysis!
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PPC Auto Import
Configure Automatic Import of PPC campaign
information on the Pro Processor. This feature
is available for Google Adwords as well as Yahoo
SM campaigns. Simply enter in your login
information as well as you account number and the
Campaign Manager will pull in your data
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Exclusions

• Some pages, files or traffic may over inflate
  traffic. You can exclude these files by going to
  the Exclusions tab in the Options dialog box.
  Common exclusions are
• xml files
• Image pages
• Internal traffic
• Frames
• Embedded media files
• We dont want our marketing traffic to be watered
  down by these items.

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Visitor Behavior Concepts Hits
Outdated term not useful in modern web
analytics Hit Any and all requests for a file
from the web server. The number of hits
received by a website is frequently cited to
assert its popularity, but this number is
extremely misleading and dramatically
over-estimates popularity. A single web-page
typically consists of multiple (often dozens) of
discrete files, each of which is counted as a hit
as the page is downloaded, so the number of hits
is really an arbitrary number more reflective of
the complexity of individual pages on the website
than the website's actual popularity. The total
number of visitors or page views provides a more
realistic and accurate assessment of popularity.
(-Wikipedia)
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Visitor Behavior Concepts Sessions/visits
The key data used to determine visits
are Unique Identifier (Persistent cookie,
session ID) or the Visitors IP address teamed
with the user-agent (web browser)
combination Time of clicks Initial Referrer
Subsequent page requests The default session
time is 30 minutes. The session timeout is 15
minutes. Both of these values can be changed in
the Advanced Options in the dataset. The terms
visit, session, and visitor can all be
considered synonymous. They all represent the
concept of a person landing on your site,
clicking to various pages, and then leaving your
site without returning for a significant length
of time.
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Website Concepts Cookies
Cookies are not evil! Cookies are little pieces
of data that the web server stores on a visitors
computer. Cookies have an undeserved reputation
by some people as a privacy intrusion. This is
not really the case, because cookies are only
capable of storing data that the website
generates itself, and a website can never see
data stored in another sites cookie.. A good
reference about cookies is http//www.clicktra
cks.com/insidetrack/marshall_law.php?video7 A
primary use of cookies is for tracking the
behavior of unique visitors over time. If you
drop a cookie containing a unique ID on the
visitors computer the first time they visit, the
next time they visit you can tell they have
already been there before. Again, this is only
information they would have provided through some
other means other than the cookie itself. The
cookie is merely a means of retrieving that data.
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Cookies Sessionization
Session Cookie This is a cookie that is set by
the programming language. It is good as it sets
a unique value on the visitors computer. The
short-coming of this type of cookie is that it is
generally set to expire in 30 minutes or when the
visitor closes the browser. Because of this, the
number of New Visitors and Unique Visitors can
skew high. Persistent Cookie (recommended)
This cookie sets a unique value on the visitors
computer that ClickTracks uses to determine the
fact that a visitor has been to the site. Also
since it has a unique value, ClickTracks uses the
value to determine the total number of Unique
Visitors. The fact that this value is set to
either never expire or expire in the distant
future enables ClickTracks to track latent
conversions.
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Benefits of Persistent Cookies

• Unique visitors
• New vs. Returning visitors
• Latent conversions (Search/Campaign Report)

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Cookie Visitor Count Concepts
Technically a value could be calculated for
Unique Visitors even if a cookie was not being
used to determine the session. However there are
so many factors that negatively impact the
accuracy of that number that ClickTracks requires
using a cookie to determine the number of Unique
Visitors. A New Visitor is defined by the fact
that a visitor does not have a cookie ID (the
first time he/she visits the site before the
cookie ID is set) A Return Visitor is defined by
the fact that he/she has a cookie ID. A Unique
Visitor has a cookie ID that is different than
any other cookie ID.
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Website Concepts Cookies

• Key Cookie Concepts
• They are inertthey dont do anything but store
  data
• They can only be read by the website that set
  them
• A website can set multiple cookies
• A common use for cookies are for establishing
  sessions and return visitors
• Any data that can be retrieved from a database
  via a scripting language can be stored in a
  cookie
• Cookies are routinely deleted by users, so can
  not be considered totally reliable as a permanent
  source of data

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Zero Second Visit
Time On Site A series of dots connected Last
page of each session 0 seconds 1 page visit
0 second visit Average time on site/time per
page will skew low because there is no way to
tell the actual length of a one-page visit
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Internal Search Report
If the Site Search is programmed using the GET
method they see a URL like this -
www.bobsfruitsite.com/searchresults.php?keywordap
ple
for the Search Results page. You can then use
the Internal Parameter Report to report on the
top 10 values of the keywords that are being
searched (and expand the list to see all search
terms.