Tracking Web Site Visitors - Web Analytics DIY

How do I track web site visitors? Here's a check list to find out if you can track them and how:

1. "Log Files"

   Check with your web hosting company to find out if they have "log files" for your website. The "log file" is where all the data is saved about visits to your website.

   If the web hosting company doesn't save this information than skip down to number five.

2. Web Analytics Tools

   Once you know there is a log file a log file analysis tool is required to decipher that raw information into something useable. There are two options for analytic tools, online or offline.

   An online analytics tool is usually provided by your hosting company. An offline tool is a piece of software you need to purchase. The pro for online is that you don't need to download the log file to your computer everytime you want to see what your website visitors are up to. The pro for offline is that you generally have more control over the data. The con for offline is that it requires more technical knowledge of the web server because you need to download the log file and reset it.

3. Web Analytics Reports

   The big difference in the quality of web analytic reports is if the information makes sense to you in the way it's reported. The first few times you view a report it may not make much sense to you so it's important to find a tool that suits your needs.

4. Understanding Web Analytic Terms

   If you're not familiar with web analysis terminology this is a short list of terms to get you up and running:

   - Hits
   This is the number of files that have been requested from the web server. This is commonly misunderstood as the number of people who visit the website, which is incorrect. If I visit a website that has one HTML page and 10 images, that is considered 11 hits. Each "hit" is a request for a file from the web server, the HTML page is one file and the images are 10 other unique files.
   
   
   - Visitors
   This is the number of people that visit your site. If someone visits your site 10 times in one day they will be counted ten times in this category.
   
   
   - Unique Visitors
   This is the number of unique people that visit your site. If someone visits your site 10 times in one day they will be counted only once. When someone asks, "How many visitors do you have?" this is the number you should give them.
   
   
   - Entry Page
   This is the first page that a visitor comes to on the site. Usually it's the home page, but it could also be an inside page.
   
   
   - Exit Page
   This is the last page the visitor was on before they left your site.
   
   
   - Length of time
   This is the amount of time a visitor stayed on a particular page. A short time means they really didn't stay, and probably didn't read anything on the page. A long time on the site means the opposite.
   
   
5. Google Analytics

   If your web hosting company doesn't provide log files you can use other services that collect the data themselves. Google Analytics is a free web analytics service that collects the log files and provides the web analytics report to you at no cost.