Hosting

1. What are webstats?

Webstats (Web usage statistics) is a system that runs on the web servers that tracks usage statistics, such as the number of visitors to a site, what files they request. Also tracked are some basic facts about visitors, such as what country they are from, what browser they use.

If you've set up a website, webstats are an essential tool for measuring its effectiveness. Basic webstats are available on most accounts, while more detailed Advanced Webstats are available on subscription based accounts except Broadband Plus. All web activity on your webspace will be recorded, this includes all domains, which are reported separately.

2. Activating webstats

Webstats need to be switched on before they will work. You can do this by clicking on the Webstats link under Website Settings in My Account. The service may take up to 24 hours to begin logging visitor statistics.

3. Using webstats

Once your webstats are activated, you will see a list of all the domains hosted on your webspace. Each domain is reported separately, just click on it and login to the webstats server with your account username and password.

4. Using log files

The webstats on the portal provide a good overall picture of visitor activity, it is possible to create a customised webstats using Webalizer software. This may be helpful for online business who need more detailed information about different parts of their site.

To support this, we can provide you with 'raw' web log files sent to your webspace for viewing using software on your computer.

If you want to have web logs saved as a file on your webspace - raise a Question using the Help Assistant.

For more information, view the webstats log support page.

5. Webstats explained

Summary page

Provides an overview of the last 12 months, note that the top graphs show the main statistics for each month. This information is also provided in the table. Note that much more detail is provided if you click on the month in the first column.

Monthly Statistics

Provide a lot of information about your web visitor activities. What this information actually means is provided below.

Hits

Any file that is requested from the webserver hosting your site. The file can be a web page, a graphic file or any other file you have on your website.

Files

Reports how many files were sent to a browser, So while a Hit is a request, a File counts what is actually sent to a visitors browser.

Pages

Pages represent how many webpages have been viewed. A webpage in this case means an HTML file with either an html or an htm extension. This is sometimes described as 'page impressions' and is a more accurate gauge of a site's popularity.

Visits

How many separate visitors have been to your site. If a visitor leaves your website, then returns later without having disconnected from the Internet then it may still only count as one visit.

Sites

This shows where visitors originate from. This stat lets to distinguish multiple visitors because the same visitor who keeps coming back will only count as one site.

KBytes

This is a measurement, in kilobytes (1024 bytes), of the traffic throughput of your whole website.

Entry Pages

The page that a visitor first view when they arrive at your site.

Exit Pages

The last page that a visitor views before leaving your site.

Response Codes

These codes are generated by the web server and indicate the completion status of each request made, a common example is a 404 Error, which means the page a visitor is looking for is not available.

URLs

Addresses that visitors are requesting from your website, they may reflect a folder (eg. /holiday/pictures/) or a specific file (e.g /holiday/pictures/sunset1.jpg).

Referrers

The referrer describes the last website the visitor was viewing before they started viewing your website. The referrer commonly includes search engine sites, and other sites that have linked to your site.

User Agents

Includes information about the browser that your visitors are using.

Search Strings

hese are obtained from examining the referrer string and looking for known patterns from various search engines.

Countries

This gives you some indication of where visitors are coming from. Note that this information is gained from the domain used by the visitor, and that many domains are now international (such as a .com domain), so they are no longer a reliable indicator of country.

This page last updated 31st March 2010