[Web4lib] Click Counters

Wed Apr 25 15:00:13 EDT 2007

I've been using AWstats for awhile and have been very happy with 
it.  It uses the server logs so there no need to rely on users 
enabling cookies (which Google Analytics uses).  The more you look at 
web stats in general the more you realize how very difficult it is to 
actually extract useful information about who and how users are 
viewing your site, but I think AWstats does a pretty reliable job.

Hits are essentially useless, as they only tell you every time a 
request as been made to your server that doesn't tell you anything 
about your users.  Actually looking at visit-time from specific IPs 
is when you start to get something you can use. Additionally 
webspiders and spambots (provided you're not on an intranet that 
firewalls these) can really have an effect your stats.   AWstats 
handles all of this nicely and I find it is rather conservative in 
calculating 'visits', so you get a pretty honest picture of how your 
site is running.

And of course there's nothing stopping anyone from running multiple 
statistics services, you are bound to get rather different results 
from each so it can't hurt to compare GA to AWstats to Webtrends, etc.

Also I want to second the opinion that you shouldn't be using a host 
that doesn't provide statistics and useful tools, there's great, 
reliable hosting out there for as little as $7 a month so even cost 
shouldn't be an issue, and most should make transferring your domain 
pretty easy too.

--Will

At 01:43 PM 4/25/2007, Andrew Hankinson wrote:
>You can usually set an exception list in stats packages that do not
>count hits that come from a certain IP or range of IP addresses.  I
>did this at a former place of employment (a University) where we
>wanted to track on- and off-campus hits separately.  So, you would set
>up your stats package to ignore (or, potentially, track separately)
>your hits from internal addresses.
>
>I'd also like to throw a word in to this discussion for AWstats as a
>stats package - it's Open Source and maintained fairly frequently.
>You don't even have to have it installed on the web server, as long as
>you can get the (appropriately formatted) server logs for your domain
>from your network guys.  You can run it on an in-house machine, feed
>it log files every day / week / month, and it will process those and
>give you a comprehensive array of statistics.  It works with both
>Apache and IIS if you're one of those unfortunate people who don't run
>Apache. ;)
>
>Andrew
>
>On 4/25/07, Glory MacIntyre <gmacintyre at summer.com> wrote:
>>I am very interested in this tool as well.  Our library is going to be
>>launching a new site and would like to keep detailed statistics of the
>>usage.  The only problem is that our web site host does not provide usage
>>statistics. Currently we use a link that accesses an image on a BCLA server.
>>They keep general stats on our website that way.
>>
>>I noticed Google analytics shows the locations of who is accessing the page.
>>We don't want to count the initial hit that is generated when users log on
>>to the public internet computers since our homepage is set to our library
>>website.  How do other libraries handle this?
>>
>>Thanks and have a great day!
>>Glory
>>Penticton Public Library
>>www.library.penticton.bc.ca
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Araby Y Greene
>>Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:46 PM
>>To: Valerie Reid; web4lib at webjunction.org
>>Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Click Counters
>>
>>I added Google Analytics to our main web site this semester to see what
>>we get compared to WebTrends. It's free, but you need to get a Google
>>account, and must add Google's "Urchin_Tracker" script to each page you
>>want to track.
>>
>>Adding the script is easy if your pages have an included footer file.
>>Put it in the footer and you're done. If you have some pages that do not
>>use your standard footer, or pages that should not be tracked, they need
>>to be dealt with separately. If you don't use a footer "include," you
>>might be able to  use search and replace to stuff the code above the
>>body tag on each page.
>>
>>The data can viewed on the Analytics site or downloaded in Excel format
>>for whatever time period you designate. You can allow other library
>>staff members to view the data.
>>
>>http://www.google.com/analytics/
>>
>>
>>-araby
>>
>>__________________________
>>Araby Greene
>>Web Development Librarian
>>Getchell Library/322
>>University of Nevada, Reno
>>http://www.library.unr.edu/
>>
>>araby at unr.edu
>>775.682-5678
>>
>>      /|
>>   \'o.O'
>>   =(___)=
>>     U
>>ACK! THPTPHH!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-
>> > > bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Valerie Reid
>> > Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 11:57 AM
>> > To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>> > Subject: [Web4lib] Click Counters
>> >
>> > Greetings:
>> >
>> > Our library web site is part of the larger hospital web site, and
>>because
>> > of
>> > this, we are seriously limited as to the type of statistics that we
>>have
>> > access to.  In essence, I can find out how many hits or visits on
>>about 15
>> > of our primary web pages.  However, we have a total of about 300-400
>>web
>> > pages, and can get no statistics on any of the rest of our pages.
>> >
>> > A few years ago, we implemented Click Manager as a way to count
>>internet
>> > traffic to some of our web pages.  This is a free package whereby I
>>imbed
>> > the specific Click Manager code into the URL and it tracks how many
>>times
>> > a
>> > user goes from a web page to another web page.
>> >
>> > We just discovered that there is no newer version of Click Manager,
>>and
>> > that
>> > the older version is no longer supported.
>> >
>> > Does anyone have a recommendation for a similar product?  Free or very
>>low
>> > cost would be ideal.  Thanks in advance.
>> >
>> > Valerie Reid
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Valerie L. Reid
>> > --------------------------------------------------------
>> > Webmaster / Senior Information Resource Specialist
>> > Henry Ford Hospital
>> > Sladen Library & Center for Health Information Resources
>> > 2799 West Grand Blvd.
>> > Detroit, MI 48202
>> >
>> > 313/916-2550
>> > 313/874-4730 FAX
>> >
>> > vreid1 at sladen.hfhs.org
>> > http://www.henryford.com/sladen
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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