Web analytics methods to store information | DIGITAL MARKETING COURSE LESSON 28

Measuring website intelligence

Web analytics methods to store information

Web analytics methods to store information

1. Web server log files

Every time the webserver receives the request for a resource, the details of the request is stored in the log files maintained by the webserver. The information maintained by the log files are as follows:-

• the unique IP address of the user�s computer
• a timestamp showing the date and time of the request
• the URI of the requested resource
• a status code confirming the result of the request
• the file size of the returned resource
• the URL of the referring page
• other information supplied by the �user agent� (typically browser
• type/version, language, and operating system).

Using the above information the web analytics software can extract a lot of information like from the IP address the user gets the location the user has accessed the website from, the URL helps us understand whether the user has entered the website address correctly.

Also, the IP address also can help us in tracking the individual path of the user throughout the website.

The log files can also be generated in various forms like raw data and also tabular form.

Web analytics

2. Page tagging solutions

This process involves putting a small piece of code on every page of your website which you want to track.

As soon as the user visits the page, the code sends the stored information to your service provider and the web analytics software�s can help us further in extracting more information from the details of the log.

Web analytics

3. Using cookies to store information

It is not always preferred to use the IP addresses to retrieve the information of the users like locations etc because of the following two reasons:-

Multiple users might visit the website using the same Ip address provided by the internet service provider. In that case, the metrics of the number of users will be discrepant.
Often the users might get different dynamic IP addresses which can be changed by their ISP�s. So, in that case, the same user if revisiting the site will be counted as a new user.
Because of the above two disadvantages large companies and sites often employ cookies to retrieve such analytics.

Cookies can be defined as small files which are sent to users browsers and store information on their local hard drives.

Web analytics

Cookies generally store a unique id which distinguishes the user and helps one to track his navigation throughout the website.

Cookies often get a bad name as they can track a user�s behavior across various other websites and his navigation throughout surfing the web.

Other than this cookie is completely harmless, and a very accurate means of tracking the user�s information while visiting the website.