Getting your Web Site's Statistics

Every web site is unique, and every web site owner is interested in different statistics about their web site. Fortunately, most of this information is recorded by the web server and stored in special files called log files.

Our Shared Windows 2000 accounts have basic web stats reporting included with their account. For more information about how to get to this information see the  Shared Windows 2000 WebStats documentation.

Log Files

Log files record traffic generated by people, and web robots that visit your web site. Logs can tell you which are the most popular pages on your site, what browsers are most frequently used to view your site, and they may be able to give you an idea of where your customers are coming from, and how they are connecting to your site in the first place.

If you'd like you can download your log files and open them in any text editor e.g. Notepad or Simpletext. This can give you an idea of what kind of information is in the file, but they can be difficult to read. We recommend that you use Log Analyzer software to make sense of the data present in your log files.

More information Log Files, and Log Analyzers can be found in the WebMonkey.com article Log File LowDown

Log Analyzers

Junctionbox Online Services offers webtrends analysis with geotrends database analysis of logfiles this is an option you can purchase with your site hosting. Scroll down to the options area for more information on our webtrends log analysis services.

Log files tend to be written by computers, for computers, and very difficult for the average human to read. That's where Log File Analyzers are very handy, they convert all of that data into something more useful for web site owners and developers.

These are some products that our customers have found useful. For a complete list of currently available Log Analyzer products go to www.cnet.com or www.tucows.com and Search for Log Analyzer

Commercial Products

• Mach 5 FastStats: http://mach5.com/products/analyzer/index.html
  A good, reasonably priced log analyzer.

• WebTrends: http://www.webtrends.com/
  One of the best, and more expensive log analyzers on the market, WebTrends has a line of products that offer more analysis based on the size of your organization and the sophistication of your web site.

Shareware and Freeware Products

• Analog: http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/analog/
  One of the most popular free log analyzer products. The learning curve can be a little steep on this product, but the reports are good, and it's free.

• Webalizer: http://www.webalizer.org/
  a fast free web analyzer, can be difficult to learn but it generates pretty reports.

Other Web Site Tracking Solutions

HitBox
HitBox is a subscription based service that does detailed, real time web site tracking for you. They require a membership agreement and a special tag on each of your web site's pages.