Re: Web site tracking tools

From: Mark J. Welch <MarkWelch_at_markwelch.com>
Date: Tue 26 Mar 2002 07:58:28 -0600

For web site tracking tools, I've tried a lot of
different programs, including a recent experience
with Webalyzer, and a long-ago love affair with
Analog, but I always come back to WebTrends. It's
expensive these days ($499 minimum for a single
server (up to 50 domains), and lots more for a
multi-server site), but it provides excellent
default reports, and configuring a whole bunch of
specialized reports is quite straightforward. Maybe
I'm spoiled because I've been using it for years,
but it's incredibly intuitive compared to the
competing products I've tested over the years.

Just last week, I used WebTrends to analyze an obscure
question: "who reads privacy policies?" I ran a very
narrow WebTrends report on a short slice of MovieGoods.com
traffic logs, looking only at requests for two files: the
privacy/security page, and the "order confirmed" page.
The overlap was minimal: of the 359 customers who placed
orders during the short (multiple-day) interval I checked,
only 10 had reviewed the privacy/security policy during
the same visit. (If that sounds like a small amount of
activity, consider that to generate this narrow "path"
report, WebTrends had to scan through several MILLION lines
of log files.)

If it helps, you can view recent WebTrends "default"
reports for some of my (smaller) personal web sites at:
  http://www.markwelch.com/stats/ (21K visitors, 44K pageviews, 56K hits/month)
  http://www.tim-store.com/stats/ (9K visitors, 18K pageviews, 22K hits/month)
  http://www.123sheetmusic.net/stats/ (4K visitors, 6K pageviews, 7K
hits/month)



-- Mark J. Welch - Internet Performance Marketing Consultant
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ 925-462-8483 Pleasanton, CA






Received on Tue Mar 26 2002 - 07:58:28 CST