Ignorance is Not Bliss
Working in the dark, not being able to see your hands in front of your face or the path you are walking down. Sounds frustrating, even dangerous, doesn't it? Traditional offline marketing can often be like this, with no measurable connection between campaigns and results to let you know what is working and what is not. Online marketing can also be like this, but only if you ignore the fact that on the Internet everything is measurable. Useful quantitative marketing numbers come from web traffic, ad campaign data and sales data. In part one of this report we will examine what numbers can be culled from your web traffic logs and how to go about doing so. Next month we will take a look at the other data sources and how all these numbers in combination can provide the metrics you need to run a successful online business.
Sorting Through Your Logs
As people surf the Internet, their computer accesses web page after web page. Each time a page is requested from the server that hosts it, that server records the request and various information associated with that event. This data is collected and stored in the server logs and is a treasure trove of useful, and sometimes useless, data for the marketer and business owner.
First, the useless - hits. A hit is any request for a file a server receives. That includes images, sound files, and anything else that may appear on a page. One request for a page can result in many, many hits. Hits do not provide an accurate picture of the activity on a site and should never be a part of a marketing discussion. Also interesting, but not the most valuable, are:
pageviews - a measure of server requests for a whole page; does not distinguish between unique and repeat visitors,
browser breakdown - gives an idea of how technologically savvy your audience is by the use of the higher - or lower - browser numbers,
geographic demographics - only useful in giving an idea of where the ISPs of your visitors are based; for instance, Virginia is always highly ranked because of the AOL servers there,
and errors - which may cost you traffic, like bad links or malfunctioning scripts.
The Traffic Numbers that Count
The most useful web traffic metrics for marketers and business owners include:
visitors and unique users - indicate how many people visited your site in any given space of time,
referrers - show where your traffic is coming from and can be very helpful in identifying sites with which to build a more significant partnerships,
site paths, entry pages, exit pages - give an idea of how visitors use your site, where you lose them and which areas may be ripe for further development or elimination,
search engine referrers and keywords - show how people are searching for and finding your site on the search engines,
Generally these patterns should be reviewed on at least a monthly basis. However, it also is extremely valuable when you chart these monthly numbers over time. They can be used to see where growth is happening and assess and compare the success of various online marketing campaigns.
How to Get the Numbers
The server logs should be found in the directory that holds your default.html file (or index.html or home.html, depending on what you called it). These raw logs are quite unintelligible to the layperson, but luckily there are some options to help process this data and generate useful reports:
If you use a use a reliable hosting service, often they will provide you with some kind of reporting, which may or may not be detailed enough for your needs.
You can also install your own traffic analysis software. These include products such as those sold by SPSS Inc., WebTrends, and Accrue Software or available for free like Analog, Webalizer, and HTTP-analyze;
Or you can outsource this task to a service provider that specializes in traffic reporting, such as WebSideStory or the WebTrends Live service, which often provides real-time data;
All of these methods have their pros and cons. Once you determine what are the most important numbers for your business and the budget you can afford, this will go a long way to deciding which service is the best fit.
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Did you know?
Using cookies enables webmasters to log even more detailed information about how individual users are accessing a site, but as Internet privacy becomes more and more legislated this particular use of cookies will be curtailed if not banned (see the recent DoubleClick decision).
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Definitions for Traffic Metrics
Crawlers: Also called spiders or bots (short for robots), these programs automatically visit websites, read pages, and collect information. Used often in search engines, crawlers can artificially inflate the number of page visits for a particular site up to 30 percent. The better traffic-analysis tools filter such visits out when creating traffic reports.
Page Views: The number of times a web page is opened, typically measured per person. Pageview statistics often do not include the specifics for frames within those pages. Also, the pageview count generally does not distinguish between unique and repeat visitors.
Paths: The navigation routes visitors take on a site--a particularly useful measurement of how difficult a site is to maneuver and the popularity of specific pages.
Referrers: URLs denoting the portals or websites through which another site is reached.
Retention: The measurement of unique users who return to the same site or page over a given time.
Unique Users: Individuals, often identified through the use of cookies, IP addresses, or passwords, who visit a site. Compare with visitors, below.
Visitors: Number of persons who visit a site. An individual who visits a site three times in one day is typically counted as three visitors.
Source: ZDNet,"Web Traffic Analysis Could Save Your Site, August 22, 2001
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eMage Site of the Month
WebMonkey's Tracking Articles
A collection of basic (although quite technical) tracking articles - including cookies, referrers, and log tracking. Some old articles, but still relevant.
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eMage Tip of the Month
When working with log analysis software here are some quick tips to maximize reporting:
Turn on the referrer data.
Filter out the IP addresses of internal users.
Make sure the software is resolving the numeric IP addresses into real URLs.
If your site is mirrored, combine logs from all sites into one report for a complete picture.
Long term data analysis is the only way to determine serious trends as short term traffic can be very volatile.
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