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Visitor
Statistics Tool
tracks the following information about
visitor activity (usage) on this site:
-
Files: The
number of files that have been requested
(downloaded) from your site during the report
period.
Web sites contain a collection of computer files,
which are sent by a remote computer (Web server) to
the client (Web browser) as the client requests
them. Files (the outgoing response to a request)
include all viable Web file formats, such as HTML
files (.html), graphics files (.gif, .jpg or .png),
Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf), Macromedia Flash files
(.swf), Microsoft Word files (.doc) ASP files
(.asp), etc.
The relationship between
hits and
files can be thought of as incoming
requests and outgoing responses.
- Hits:
The total number of requests that were made to the
site during the report period.
Any request made to the Web server is logged as a
hit. The request can be for files, such as an HTML
page, graphic image, audio file or CGI script, or
for queries made by search engine spiders.
- Pages
(Also called Page Views):
The number of pages viewed during the report period.
Hypertext mark-up files (.html or .htm) and files
that generate HTML documents (for example, .asp .cgi).
are considered pages, with the definition of a page
varying by server. HyperMart's servers define as a
page any file with one of the following extensions:
- .htm*
- .cgi
- .chtml
- .shtml
- .phtml
- .php*
- .pl
- .py
( * represents any character)
Some people consider the pages total to be the
number of pure hits. In other words, it is a truer
indication of the traffic your site receives.
- Referrers:
The record of the URLs from which a request was made
during the report period.
Example: A user follows a
link on www.websiteA.com to your site. The URL of
the linking page (www.websiteA.com) is the referring
URL or referrer.
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Response Codes:
Response codes (also called status codes) are
the coded results of a server's attempt to
understand and satisfy a request. Web server
responses indicate whether a Web object (Web page,
graphics file, CGI script, etc.) was successfully
retrieved or executed and, if not, the reason for
the unsuccessful result. Unsuccessful results are
also referred to as server error codes.
Log files record these codes, and the
Visitor Statistics tool includes a
report on them.
The following codes are some of the most common
responses:
- Code 200 - OK: The
request was fulfilled. The Web page was
successfully downloaded without error.
- Code 401 - Unauthorized:
The code indicates that users have tried to
access pages that are restricted to a private
network or IP address.
- Code 404 - Not Found:
The server has not found anything matching the
URL given, which can indicate broken links in
the Web site due to the removal of a Web page or
other resource. Alternatively, the response may
indicate spelling errors in the URL.
- Code 403- Forbidden: The
request is for something forbidden. The code
indicates that users have tried to access pages
that require user authorization, such as
password-protected administration areas or
members areas.
- Code 500 - Internal Error:
The request failed. The server encountered an
unexpected condition which prevented it from
fulfilling the request. This code often
indicates a script error.
- Search Strings:
The record of all unique search strings obtained
from the end of the
referrer URLs
during the report period.
Search strings are the words entered by users into a
search engine or directory to locate information.
- Sites:
The record of all unique IP addresses that made
requests to the Web site during the report period.
The Internet is a network of computers that can
share files with one another via a common protocol.
Each computer on the network has a unique IP
(Internet Protocol) address, which identifies that
computer and differentiates it from other computers
on the network. Each request made to the server
comes from a unique IP address or site.
Note: The number of sites
does not represent the number of individual users or
individual computers accessing the Web site. Due to
factors, such as multiple people working on the same
network, it is impossible to determine a unique
visitor total using only logs and HTTP protocol.
Still, this number can be used as a close
approximation.
Example: Private networks
connecting to the Internet via a router use a single
IP address (the router IP address) for security
purposes, so one site can represent multiple users.
- User Agents:
The record of the unique programs and devices used
to access your site.
User agents include:
- Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer
and Mozilla Firefox
- Search engine spiders, such as those from
Yahoo! and Google
- Download managers
- Text-to-speech and similar readers
- Visits
(Also called Sessions): An attempt to
measure the number of times visitors go to a Web
site during the report period.
As
page requests are
made to the Web server from sites, the server
records the IP address and the time which elapses
between requests from that IP address. If the time
between requests exceeds 30 minutes, HyperMart Web
servers record a new visit for that site.
Example: Someone visits a
page at your site at 1:00 p.m. and then requests
another page at 3:00 p.m. The server records two
visits.
Note: Due to the limitation
of the HTTP protocol and other factors, the number
of visits should not be taken as absolutely
accurate. Rather, it should be considered a very
close estimate.
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