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Hits | Files | Pages
| Visits | Kbyes
| Sites | URLs |
Referrers
User Agent | Top
Entry and Exit Pages | Search Keywords
The following are some definitions of the information that
Webalizer statistics package reports.
Hits
Any request made to the server which is logged, is considered
a *hit*. The requests can be for any type of file, e.g., HTML
pages, graphic images, audio files, cgi scripts, etc... Each
valid line in the server log is counted as a hit. This number
represents the total number of requests that were made to
the server during the specified report period.
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Files
Some requests made to the server require that the server then
send some information back to the requesting client, such
as an HTML page or graphic image. When this happens, it is
considered a *file* and the files total count is incremented.
The relationship between hits and files can
be described as incoming requests and outgoing responses.
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Pages
*Pages* are the number of web pages - any HTML document, or
anything that generates an HTML document, would be considered
a page. This does not include the other stuff that goes into
a document, such as graphic images, and audio clips, etc...
Technically what actually constitutes a page can
vary from server to server. The default action is to treat
anything with the extension .htm, .html, .shtm,
.shtml as a page.
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Visits
Whenever a request is made to the server from a given IP address
(site), the amount of time since a previous request by the same
address is calculated (if any). If the time difference is greater
than a preconfigured visit timeout value (or has never
made a request before), it is considered a new visit,
and this total is incremented (both for the site, and the IP
address). The timeout value is set to 30 minutes, so if a user
visits your site at 1:00 pm in the afternoon, and then returns
at 3:00 pm, two visits would be registered.
Technically due to the limitation of the HTTP protocol,
log rotations and other factors, this number should not be
taken as absolutely accurate, rather, it should be considered
a pretty close "guess".
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KBytes
The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, measured
in KB, that was sent out by the server during the specified
reporting period. This value is generated directly from the
log file.
Technically a kilobyte is 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes.
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Sites
Each request made to the server comes from a unique *site*,
which can be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address.
The sites number shows how many unique IP addresses made
requests to the server during the reporting time period. This
DOES NOT mean the number of unique individual users (real people)
that visited, which is impossible to determine using just logs
and the HTTP protocol (however, this number might be about as
close as you will get). This is because it is possible for multiple
users to be hidden behind a single IP number - as in firewalls
...etc.
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URLs
*URLs* reports the unique URLs for your web site that were requested
by users. This will count HTML as well as graphics.
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Referrers
A *Referrer* is the URL of the last web page the user was on
before coming to your web site. Therefore, this information
reports the web pages that link to your site.
Technically, if a user types in your URL directly, the browser
will not record a referrer. In addition, the referrer variable
is a new feature that was not supported in all browser types
and versions. The recent browsers support the referrer attribute.
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User Agent
The *User Agent* reports the number of browser types and versions
used by users visiting your web site.
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Top Entry and Exit Pages
The Top Entry and Exit Pages give a rough estimate of what URL's
are used to enter your site, and the last pages viewed by a
visitor. Because of limitations in the HTTP protocol, log rotations,
etc... this number should be considered a good "rough guess"
of the actual numbers.
This information will give a good indication of the overall
trend in where users come into your site - via bookmarks or
search engines, and where users exit your site.
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Search Keywords
The *Search Keywords* is a list of keywords that were used in
search engines to find your web site.
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posted:
May 9, 2007
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