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date added:2007-08-11 22:53:12 | modifed: 2011-06-12 00:14:12

Reading Web Stats

Summary

The Summary shows totals and averages for Sessions, Pageviews, Hits, and Bytes for the currently selected Date Range.

Calculation Methodology

• Session: A series of Hits to your site over a specific period of time by one visitor.
• Pageview: A request to the web server by a visitor's browser for any web page; this excludes images, javascript, and other generally embedded file types.
• Hit: Any successful request to a webserver from a visitor's browser.
• Bytes: The quantity of network bandwidth used by the files requested during the selected Date Range.

Note
Because Bytes numbers can be very large, abbreviations are used as appropriate, such as MB for megabytes (~millions of bytes). The average length of Session is displayed as hours:minutes:seconds.

Sessions Graph

This report shows the trend of recent activity on your website in terms of Visitor Sessions over time. The default timeframe is one week, but this can easily be changed in the Date Range control area.

Calculation Methodology

A 'Session' is defined as a series of clicks on your site by an individual visitor during a specific period of time. A Session is initiated when the visitor arrives at your site, and it ends when the browser is closed or there is a period of inactivity. Sessions quantities will vary to some degree based on what type of visitor tracking method is employed. For the most accurate numbers, the Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) should be used.

Requested Pages

This report ranks the popularity of the Pages (HTML files, generally) visited on your site by number of Pageviews and relative percentage. Urchin's configuration controls which file extensions are treated as Pageviews. In general, images and other embedded content, such as style sheets and javascript, are not considered to be Pageviews.

Downloads

This report ranks the popularity of all Downloads on your site by number of Hits (requests) and relative percentage. A Download is determined by the file extension and Urchin's configuration settings. In general, Downloads includes archives, executables, PDFs, and other non-image/non-HTML documents.

Posted Forms

This report shows a list of the top Forms used on your site. The list shows each form handler used (such as a CGI script). Only form handlers that use the POST method are listed - those using the GET method are not listed in this report, but are listed in the Page Query Terms report.

Entrance Pages

This report shows the first Page viewed for each Session in the currently selected Date Range. This is where Visitors entered your website. Urchin's configuration controls which file extensions are treated as Pageviews. In general, images and other embedded content, such as style sheets and javascript, are not considered to be Pageviews. Clicking on any Page name will bring it up in a separate browser window.

Exit Pages

This report lists the last Page visited in each Session by your site's visitors over the currently selected Date Range. Urchin's configuration controls which file extensions are treated as Pageviews. In general, images and other embedded content, such as style sheets and javascript, are not considered to be Pageviews. Clicking on any Page name will bring it up in a separate browser window.

Bounce Rate

This report lists the pages on which visitors entered and then exited without viewing any other pages on the site (Bounce Pages).
• Bounces is the number of times visitors exited from the page without visiting any other pages on the site.
• Entrances is the total number of entrances on the page.
• Bounce Rate is the percentage of entrances on the page that resulted in exits without viewing any other page on the site. It is calculated as Bounces divided by Entrances.

Referrals

This report ranks referring URLs (external web pages) that brought traffic to your site. For Sessions without an external referral, which occurs when a Visitor goes directly to your site via a bookmark/favorite or by typing in the URL directly, the (no referral) entry is incremented. This allows you to compare the percentage of traffic from external links versus Visitors that already know about your site. Click any referring page to view it in a new browser window.

Calculation Methodology

Each session is scanned for an external referral, which is determined using the domains list in the configuration for this site. If an external referral is found, then the base-URL of the referral is entered and incremented. The base-URL does not include query parameters (after the ? query token) which would cause extreme granularity. If no external referral is detected then '(no referral)' is incremented.

Search Terms

This report lists the actual keywords/phrases people typed into search engines to find your site. Entries are ranked by the number of Sessions each was responsible for. To list all phrases with a particular word, enter the word in the Filter at the top and press Enter. The Total at the bottom of the report will now represent the total number of search phrases that contain that word.

Calculation Methodology

Each session is scanned for an external referral, which is determined using the domains list in the configuration for this site. If an external referral is found, then the query of the referral is scanned for search variables. If a search variable and term is found, then the term is entered and incremented. The list of search variables can be controlled in Urchin's configuration.

Search Engines

This report lists each Search Engine that referred traffic to your site using a keyword search. By clicking on the arrow next to each entry, you can see the actual Search Terms people typed in. Entries are ranked by the number of Sessions each Search Engine was responsible for.

Calculation Methodology

Each session is scanned for an external referral, which is determined using the domains list in the configuration for this site. If an external referral is found, then the query of the referral is scanned for search variables. If a search variable and term is found, then the search domain and term are entered and incremented. The list of search variables can be controlled in Urchin's configuration.

Domain Drilldown

This report lists the top-level domains, such as .com and .net, that your site's visitors came from, ranked by Sessions. By clicking the arrow next to each entry, you can see the actual networks (second and third level domains) under each top-level domain. Urchin can resolve most networks, but some will always be unresolved, meaning the network could not be identified. The (no entry) term includes all unresolved IP addresses. This will often be the first or second item in the chart.

Combos by Sessions

This report combines the Browser and Platform reports and produces a list of the most common computer setups used to view your site, such as 'Internet Explorer 6.0 | Windows XP'. Browsers are grouped by minor release number, that is, 6.0 and 6.1 would be different entries. Due to the way log data is recorded, Macintosh computers are only shown in terms of processor type, either 68k (old) or PPC (new).

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