How to Analyze Your Web Site Traffic (Part 3 of a 3 Part Series) Copyright 2002 by Herman Drost In Part 2 of this series, we discussed some of
ways to track your web site visitors. Now we will take a look at:
4. Web Traffic Analysis Software These are programs that analyze your server logs and then create traffic reports accordingly. The quality of
reports generated will depend on what software you actually use. Some log analyzers are free and come preinstalled on many hosting accounts, while others can cost a good deal of money.
Examples: Webalizer (http://www.webalizer.com) WebTrends (http://www.webtrends.com)
Webalizer (free) The Webalizer is a fast, FREE, web server log file analysis program which produces usage statistics in HTML format for viewing with a standard web browser. The results are presented in both columnar and graphical format, which facilitates interpretation. Yearly, monthly, daily and hourly usage statistics are presented, along with
ability to display usage by site, URL, referrer, user agent (browser), search string, entry/exit page, username and country.
Here's an example of
Web Usage Statistics: http://www.webalizer.com/sample/index.html
WebTrends ($495) The Web Trends Analyzer produces essential reports on web site visitor patterns, referring sites, visitor paths and demographics. You can learn, for example, which sites and keyword searches have referred
largest number of visitors to your site.