What is behind all those web traffic reports?

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Not all website statistical reports are created equal.
Server activity analyses provide adequate measurements to assess the performance of your Internet presence, while real-time statistics offer more accurate data, like the exact number of unique visitors, their access method, or pages visited. Commercial applications like Urchin or WebTrends belong to the first category, and they generate server analysis reports, typically accessible from a control panel.
Services in the second category are able to detect from within the Web itself, each one of the website visits, collecting and registering very valuable information, which is later on presented in graphical form. It is important to point out that these two types of reports are not mutually exclusive, but complementary, and it will pay off to learn how to adequately interpret the information that each one conveys.
The results will provide a complete picture, which will prove invaluable when making marketing decisions. Server Activity Analysis Internet servers keep records of all traffic and information requests inside log files.
These log files include information on errors, processing time, bandwidth used, visitor IP address, where visitors came from (referred) along with information regarding their operating system and Internet browser used. Applications that utilize this information are typically installed behind the server’s firewall and they periodically analyze the log files (weekly, monthly…) After interpreting the data, these applications generate a report containing tables and graphs that present the information in a very readable and user-friendly format.
Real-time Statistics Another method of analyzing website activity consists of updating a database each time that a visitor comes to a website. This method requires the inclusion of a small piece of JavaScript code in each of the pages to be tracked.
This code is invisible to all website visitors. The first time that a visitor reaches the website, the Javascript code places a cookie in their computer so that they can be tracked as a unique visitor thereafter.
Very shortly after inserting the code in each web page, information about visitors is collected and securely registered in a database, becoming available for immediate retrieval. The information stored in the database could, for example, accurately track a given marketing campaign (e.g.
a banner, a pay-per-click program) since it can be determined how the visitor was referred, or it could track the dollar values of Internet orders. Since this information is saved in real time, it becomes immediately available, without having to wait for a periodic report.
Can a log file analyzer and a real-time statistical report produce different results? It is indeed very possible since each one uses a different type of data. That is why it is essential to gain an understanding of what each report is trying to convey.
Some of the major differences are outlined below: Counting Method: Unique Visitor Identification: Reporting Method: Referral Information: Crawlers/Spiders:: Proxy Server Page Caching: Non-HTML Files: Error Pages: Conclusion The information provided by both types of reports is complementary. There are certain aspects, like errors, average session times, visit referrals, and crawlers/spiders activity that are better tracked and reported by a server activity analysis.
On the other hand, the information registered by the real-time statistics can, for example, immediately report how many visits are being generated by a banner that was placed yesterday in a particular search engine. Furthermore, the real-time reports can present in a very intuitive and graphical form important trends of the activity experienced in a website, providing, at the same time, a more accurate view of the number of unique visitors and the capability of the website to attract returning visitors.
In a future article, we will address which are the magic figures. In other words, what information is most important and must be considered before judging the performance of a website, drawing conclusions, or proposing changes.
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