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WEBSITE EFFECTIVENESS

WEBSITE EFFECTIVENESS. An Introduction to Web Traffic Measurement. An Introduction to Web Traffic Measurement. What is log file analysis? Commercial Tools Definitions Examples of Analysis Pitfalls Other issues/topics Applications and Marketing Issues. Wrap Up. DEFINITION.

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WEBSITE EFFECTIVENESS

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  1. WEBSITE EFFECTIVENESS An Introduction to Web Traffic Measurement BA 572 - J. Galván

  2. An Introduction to Web Traffic Measurement • What is log file analysis? • Commercial Tools • Definitions • Examples of Analysis • Pitfalls • Other issues/topics • Applications and Marketing Issues. • Wrap Up BA 572 - J. Galván

  3. DEFINITION Web traffic analysis is the process of measuring extent and character of activity of users on a web site, interpreting the measurements, and applying the conclusions. BA 572 - J. Galván

  4. LOG FILE ANALYSIS - BIG PICTURE Web Server Data Store (Oracle DB) Admin Console Analysis Server & Analysis Package Log files Nightly Browser "Canned" Reports Power user GUI/SQL. Special Reports BA 572 - J. Galván

  5. LOG FILE EXAMPLE(Combined Log Format) limestone.uoregon.edu andred - [19/Jun/1999:00:49:41 - 0500] "GET /service/contracts.gif HTTP/1.0" 200 1341 "http://www.netgen.com/" Mozilla/2.0(compatible; MSIE 4.0; AOL 4.0; Windows95)" • Hostname or IP address • Registered user name (usually blank) • Date and time of request • Object requested • Status code • Bytes transferred • Referral information • Browser information BA 572 - J. Galván Courtesy netGenesis Corp.

  6. COMMERCIAL WEB TRAFFIC ANALYSIS TOOLS Tool Method Comments netGenesis log file analysis Highly capable system www.netgenesis.com Wusage log file analysis Inexpensive, easy to maintain www.boutel.com/wusage Limited capability Accrue log file analysis Troubles with earlier versions www.accrue.com NetAcumen FTP log files to vendor Privacy issues. Website for reports. www.netacumen.com $1K/mo for 10K visits/mo. $2.5K set up charge. Hitbox Client side scripting Vend out admin. Good for simple sites. www.hitbox.com 250K pvs/mo = $700/mo. 1M pvs/mo = $1.5K/mo. ARIA TCP/IP packet sniffing Does not use log files. www.macromedia.com BA 572 - J. Galván Courtesy L. Johnson, Sun Microsystems

  7. TERMS • Resource - Any file on a server available to be downloaded to a client. • Request - An instruction made to a webserver to download a resource. (Sometimes called a "hit".) • Page - An html document, usually containing text and references to images and other objects. A page has its own URL. • Page View - A request for a document on a web site. • Page views: .html, .pl, .txt, .shtml, .exe, .cgi, .bat, ... • Not page views: .gif, .jpeg, .movie, .tcl, .tif, .wav, ... BA 572 - J. Galván

  8. TERMS(Cont.) • Visit - A specific session at a web site that ends when no more requests are made after a defined time period, usually 30 minutes. • User (Visitor) - A person or agent who makes requests to a web site. • Daily Unique User (duUser) - A unique user who visited your web site on a given day. • Weekly Unique User (wuUser) - A unique user who visited your site in a given week. BA 572 - J. Galván

  9. REPORT EXAMPLES: PAGE VIEWS AND VISITS BA 572 - J. Galván

  10. Report Examples: Visits and Users BA 572 - J. Galván

  11. TOP PAGES EXAMPLE HTTP Resource # of Page Views %of Total Cum % • / 2,136,650 38.5 38.5 • /bigadmin/downloads/ 228,679 4.1 42.7 • /MySun/ 198,430 3.6 46.2 • /bigadmin/docs/ 131,694 2.4 48.6 • /search/index.cgi/ 103,248 1.9 50.5 • /staroffice/ 65,347 1.2 51.6 • /products-n-solutions 65,038 1.2 52.8 • /corp_emp/scripts/showjob.cgi/ 63,601 1.1 54.0 • /products/staroffice/get.cgi/ 60,260 1.1 55.0 • /forte/ffj/overview.html/ 58,103 1.0 56.1 • Other 2,434,788 43.9 100 BA 572 - J. Galván (Altered data.)

  12. Drill Down, Top Hostnames Example Top Hostnames for /corp_emp/scripts/showjob.cgi, for time period in previous report: Hostname # Page Views %of Total Cum % • serv3.hwka.com 17,161 27.0 27.0 • 209.67.186.119 5,998 9.4 36.4 • 216.34.97.92 5,736 9.0 45.4 • ip22.digibahn.net 1,103 1.6 47.0 • areil.sun.com 501 0.8 47.8 • mailgate.cwhkt.com 363 0.6 48.4 • pix89.pgexch.com 249 0.4 52.2 • other (5152) 30,115 47.2 100 (Altered data.) BA 572 - J. Galván

  13. Top Referrers Example Referring Web Site # Visits % of Total • No Referral Information Sent 3,655,598 65.3% • www.sun.com 525,225 9.4% • java.sun.com 161,909 2.9% • www.google.com 110,019 2.0% • www.slashdot.org 40,280 0.7% • slashdot.org 35,263 0.6% • www.javasoft.com 31,128 0.6% • web.icq.com 28,401 0.5% • google.yahoo.com 27,622 0.5% • www.java.sun.com 24,400 0.4% • other 955,485 17% BA 572 - J. Galván (Altered data.)

  14. CLICKSTREAM EXAMPLE BA 572 - J. Galván

  15. What do you know? • Date and time of the request. • What file was requested. • Internet address of the host. • Usually are told what page referred the visitor to you. • Usually are told the make and model of the browser. PIT FALLS In other words, you know what is in the log file. The rest you are assuming, calculating, estimating, or believing. BA 572 - J. Galván

  16. Cacheing: • Browser cacheing. • ISP cacheing (AOL). • National cacheing. • Affects traffic quantity (views, visits, users). • Affects apparent behavior (e.g.click streams). Proxy Servers: • Many real users might look like one user. • Distorts the number of users, visits, and click streams. • Merged visits. Robots: • Inflate page views. PITFALLS (CONT.) BA 572 - J. Galván

  17. Internal vs. External Traffic. Complicated web sites: • Multiple servers. • Need all log files in the same data store. • Changing web site design. Load balancing: • Front end server can shuffle traffic between different backend servers. • Where are your log files actually coming from? PIT FALLS (CONT.) BA 572 - J. Galván

  18. OTHER ISSUES/TOPICS • Cookies: • Partial solution to Unique User problem caused by proxy servers. Improves user and visit count accuracy; untangles clickstreams. • Privacy issues must be dealt with. • Authenticated User data has highest confidence. • Query Strings: • https://sun.com/service/Router?country=US&feature=SoftwareUpdate • https://sun.com/service/Router?country=JP&feature=ServiceRequest • RESOURCE?KEY=value&KEY=value • Analysis packages must be configured to handle these. BA 572 - J. Galván

  19. OTHER ISSUES/TOPICS • Dynamic Content: • Web pages which are generated on the fly by pulling data from a database. • URLs can be very cryptic. • Measurement tool must be specially configured • Transactions and Other Metrics: • Purchases • Submittals • Linkages to backend servers and databases. • Telephone data. • Traditional order channels. • Financial impact. • Return on investment (ROI). Dynamic Content: Web pages which are generated on the fly by pulling data from a database. URLs can be very cryptic. Measurement tool must be specially configured . BA 572 - J. Galván

  20. HOW IS WEB TRAFFIC ANALYSIS USED? Customer Financials Web Site Want this! Understand this! Use This! Web Traffic is a link between financial performance and customer behaviour. BA 572 - J. Galván

  21. STAGES OF CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING Machine. Basic Stats. Persistent User Identifier. Retention, frequency, recency. Anonymous User Profile. One-to-few demographic Discrete User Identity. One-to-one targeting BA 572 - J. Galván

  22. CONVERSION 40% Receipt Store 30% Catalog Add to Cart Check Out 7% 40% 3% 1% 0.4% What web traffic metrics would you use to improve this? How might the user interface affect loss at each step? BA 572 - J. Galván

  23. SHIPPING COMPANY EXAMPLE. SIX TYPES OF USERS Segment 4: Info Gatherers - 4% • Concentrated in information areas. • Rarely reach transaction areas. Segment 5: Single-clickers - 32% • Visit homepage only. • Not qualified customers or prospects. Segment 6: Wanderers - 15% • Very few, very random pages. • Few hits, but long duration per page view. Segment 1: Trackers - 37% • Tracking past shipments. • Characterized by low duration. Segment 2: Reservers - 3% • Complete online reservations. • Low duration per page view. Segment 3: Uncommitted - 10% • Characterized by long duration. • Fail to complete transaction. What strategy would you use to help each segment? Would you change the user interface per segment? BA 572 - J. Galván Courtesy netGenesis

  24. SUMMARY • Server log files can be used to record web traffic. • Page views, visits, users (various uniquenesses), top pages, referrers, and clickstreams are used to describe web traffic. • Pitfalls to accurate data are cacheing, proxy servers, robots, complicated architecture, ... • Web traffic is just part of the picture. • Traffic data needs to be interpreted in a broader context to better serve customer, to steer user interface decisions, and ultimately help company bottom line. BA 572 - J. Galván

  25. Work happily! BA 572 - J. Galván

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