Colorado Valley Internet -
Web Hosting Support
How To Check Your Website Visitor Statistics
And Manage Log Files
Web Stats is a web server log file analysis
program. It produces usage statistics from your
website's server
logs. For Web Stats to work properly you must have Activity Logging
enabled.
To verify Activity Logging is enabled login to
your online control panel and click “Statistics”
and select “Log Manager”. If you see a button on the right that
states "Disable Activity Logs" this means logging IS enabled.
If you see a button that states "Enable Activity Logs" you must press that
button to start the traffic logging process.
Web Stats keeps its statistics
for only 12 months. To
keep your statistics for a longer period of time you have two options:
- Rename the "stats"
directory, which is located inside your "public" directory or move it to
another location. Web Stats will create a new directory the next time it is
run. When the new "stats" directory is created, it will only contain the
statistics from the date it is created and the new reports will be generated
from the available statistics.
- Copy the contents of your
"stats" directory to another location.
Web Stats uses
Webalizer Version
2.01 server log analysis program.
The easiest way to view your traffic
statistics is to visit the web address of
http://www.yourdomain.com/stats.
You can save this web address in your browser's Favorites or Bookmarks.
You can also view your websites statistics is
within your online control panel by
clicking on "Statistics" and "Web Stats" and press the "Display
Report" button.
The various statistics that Web Stats generates
are described below:
Hits
Any request made to the server which is logged
is considered a "hit". The requests can be for any resource: HTML pages, graphic
images, audio files, cgi scripts, etc. Each valid line in the server log is
counted as a hit. This number represents the total number of requests that were
made to the server during the specified report period.
Hits by
response code
After a client makes a request to the server,
the server returns a response code (status code). The Response code shows the
result of the request. "Hits by response code" represents the total number of
requests that received the same specified status code. Some common response
codes are:
200
OK
302
Found
304
Not Modified
400
Bad Request
401
Unauthorized
403
Forbidden
404
Not found
500
Server error
Files
Some requests made to the server require that
the server responds to the requesting client. This type of request is considered
a "file" and the file total is incremented. The relationship between "hits" and
"files" may be thought of as "incoming requests" and "outgoing responses".
Pages
Any HTML document, or process that generates an
HTML document, is considered a page. This does not include graphic images, audio
clips, etc. This number represents only the number of "pages" requested. What
actually constitutes a "page" is determined by file extension (.html or .htm).
This is a better indicator of traffic flow that a "hit".
Agents
A user agent is a web browser. The User Agent
statistic details the type and version of the browsers used to view the domain.
Sites
Each request made to the server comes from a
unique site, which can be referenced by a name or an IP address. The site's
number shows how many unique IP addresses made requests to the server during the
reporting period.
Visits
Whenever a request is made to the server from a
given IP address, the amount of time since a previous request by the address is
calculated. If the time difference is greater than a pre-configured "visit
timeout" value (or
has never made a request before), it is considered a "new visit". This total is
incremented both for the site, and the IP address. The time-out value is 30
minutes.
KBytes
The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount
of data, in KB that was sent out by the server during the specified reporting
period. This value is generated directly from the log file, so it is up to the
web server to produce accurate numbers in the logs. In general, this should be a
fairly accurate representation of the amount of outgoing traffic.
Search String
These are the "keywords" used by visitors in
search engines to find your website.
The "Report settings" options are described in
detail below:
Time periods
The yearly (index) report shows statistics
for a 12-month period, and links for each month. The monthly report has
detailed statistics for that month, with additional links to any URL's and
referrers found.
Top Entry and Exit Pages
The Top Entry and Exit Pages give a rough
estimate of what URL is used to enter your site, and what the last pages
viewed are. Because of limitations in the HTTP protocol, log rotations, etc.
this number should be considered a good "rough guess" of the actual numbers.
It will give a good indication of the overall trend where users come into, and
exit your site.
Entry - This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
"Top Entry Pages" table. To disable the table, use a value of zero (0).
Exit - This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
"Top Exit Pages" table. To disable the table, use a value of zero (0).
Agents
This option specifies the number of entries
to display in the "Top User Agents" table. To disable the table, use a value
of zero (0).
Countries
This option specifies the number of entries
to display in the "Top Countries" table. To disable the table, use a value of
zero (0).
Top Referrers and All Referrers
The Top Referrers option specifies the number
of entries to display in the "Top Referrers" table of sites that have referred
people to your website. To disable the option, enter a value of zero (0).
The All Referrers option will display a
report of all referrers to a site in a separate HTML page. By default, the All
Referrers option will be off. The option can be enabled by changing its
setting to "on."
It should be noted that in order for the All
Referrers report to be generated, the number set in the Top Referrers option
must be less than the website's actual number of referrers. If there are less
than 5 referrers in total, the All Referrers report cannot be generated.
Sites
This option specifies the number of entries
to display in the "Top Sites" table. To disable the table, use a value of zero
(0).
URLs
This option specifies the number of entries
to display in the "Top URLs" table. To disable the table, use a value of zero
(0).
Your traffic statistics can tell a great deal about the effectiveness of your
website including where your traffic is coming from, your keywords in search
engines, etc. Although your stats are available online at
http://www.yourdomain.com/stats
no one will know they are there unless then try typing in that web address in
their browser, it is a good idea to password protect your web stats so that your
competitors cannot view them.
To
password your Web Stats page login to your
online control panel and click "Security"
and "Website Security". Press the
drop-down arrow in the right pane and highlight /public/stats
and press Next and choose the desired level of
security you would like. Press the ?
on that screen if you require further help with this function.
** Log files take up your allotted amount of web
space.
You will receive an automated warning
messages at 80%, 90% and 100% storage capacity for your hosting package.
If you have received a warning message please read below...
Using the Log Manager
To access the Log Manager function, select
“Statistics” from the main menu, and select “Log Manager” from the Statistics
menu.
The Log Manager allows you to obtain raw server
logs that include all activity for your website. If you do not view your
website traffic stats you can completely disable Activity Logs to conserve
storage space.
To disable Activity Logs simply click the
button that states "Disable Activity Logs" after you enter Log Manager.
Keep in mind that when you disabling Activity Logs your Web stats report will not
function. You can go back and enable Activity Logs at any time.
Downloading your Activity Logs
To download and save one or more log files to your local
machine, select the "Download selected logs" option from the "Options" tab and
click the "Next" button. A "Save" dialog box will be displayed. Fill out the
required options on the dialog box and click the "Save" button.
If you hold the CTRL key down while you click
multiple server logs, the selected
logs will be compressed in Zip format before being downloaded.
Since logs can be very large you will
benefit from a high-speed Internet connection if you choose to download them
before deleting them.
Deleting your Activity Log files
To delete your log file, highlight the log(s)
and select the "Delete
selected logs" option from the "Options" tab and click the "Next" button. The
results of the operation will be displayed in a message window. Once deleted,
the log cannot be recovered.
How To Configure The Server To Automatically
Update Your Traffic Statistics Daily
Then Rotate (Zip or Compress) Server Logs
| We suggest that
you configure the server to automatically update your website statistics
daily and then rotate (zip or compress) your server logs. With this
setting your server logs shouldn't get large enough to trigger a storage
space warning. To do this login to
your
online control panel and click "Statistics" then "Web Stats".
On the right side of the screen click the
"User mode" drop-down menu and select "Advanced".
Note the graphic on the right:
-
Uncheck the
setting of "disable log rotation"
-
Place the dot by daily
at the bottom
-
Choose the Report
statistic settings you desire
-
For the settings to take
effect click either the "Update Report" or "Create New Report" button.
Once you have configured the server in this
automatic update and log rotation mode you must view your stats using the
web address of
http://www.yourdomain.com/stats.
In the future if you ever press the Update Report button in the control
panel it will disable this automatic rotation and you will need to repeat
the steps above. |
|
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Panel Access |
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