A Brief Discussion: Web Traffic Analytics

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A Brief DiscussionWeb Traffic Analytics

• Alyssa Dodd and Linda Seals
• Palm Beach County

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Definition

• Web traffic analytics refers specifically to
  looking at the data that comes from user activity
  on a given website.
• Looking for patterns and relationships in order
  to better understand user behavior.
• -Fran Diamond,
• Web Traffic Analytics
• and User Experience

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Why Track Web Traffic?

• A few ideas.
• Estimate the number of people we are reaching
  (contacts?)
• Estimate the number of people reading specific
  documents (Ex newsletters)
• Identify topics/publications that are popular
• Identify web design/marketing strategies that
  work (before/after)
• Improve our web sites
• OTHER IDEAS?

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Where Does the Data Come From?

• Web log files (in most cases) from your web
  server
• Most Web analytics tools translate the coded
  requests into tables, charts, and graphs that
  provide a picture of what users are doing
• Statistics can be gathered daily, weekly,
  monthly, annually

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IFAS Web Site Statistics
http//webstats.ifas.ufl.edu/
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Deciphering the Code

• Hits
• Page Views
• Visits
• Unique Visitors
• Referrals
• Search Strings

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Ex Reader Interest Trends

• Most viewed articles (01/01 and 06/22 of 2005)
• Reference http//www.joe.org/l
• Understanding Employee Motivation (37,532 views)
• Cronbach's Alpha A Tool for Assessing the
  Reliability of Scales (11,287 views)
• Assessing Your Collaboration A Self Evaluation
  Tool (8,542 views)
• What's Relationship Marketing? (6,539 views)
• An Organizational Culture Assessment Using the
  Competing Values Framework A Profile of Ohio
  State University Extension (6,132 views)

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Ex Visitor Trends
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Limitations

• Web site statistics cannot tell you
• The number of unique individual users
• How users moved throughout the site
• If the user found the information they were
  looking for
• Whether or not the user was influenced (behavior
  change)

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http//www.csc.noaa.gov/wcde/
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Things You Can Do Todayfrom Ligia Ortega, IFAS
Web Manager

• Update/edit existing web text
• Write additional content
• Compile Frequently Asked Questions
• Gather electronic formats of popular publications
  and photos
• Remind callers and visitors about your web site
  as a resource (instant gratification!)
• Make (and share!) your Wish List!
• Ligia Ortega, IFAS Web Manager
• [phone] x281 ortega_at_ufl.edu