Rick, I would seriously look at Google Analytics: Benefits 1. it's free 2. it is extensively documented 3. you can manage multiple websites thru one interface 4. there are books written by real authors on the reports 5. the reports are the most user friendly of any I have seen 6. cross section data cuts like "of the people using firefox, what was their exit page" 7. e-commerce data Drawbacks 1. It's javascript based - but unless you are serving content to a niche population with javascript disabled then lets skip that one. 2. It doesn't monitor your 404s unless you add the JavaScript to your 404 page since it isn't log based.
My take is that since it's free and takes about 10 minutes to add to a page header on your site to be included everywhere - why wouldn't you install it and try it? If you install it and don't like it I'm sure they'll give you your money back :-) -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adam Howitt http://www.walkjogrun.net/?f I'm running a marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma charity: http://www.active.com/donate/tntil/adamhowitt On 2/20/07, Rick Faircloth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Whew... I think my server would choke... :o) > Thanks for the info on the procedure, however. > > Rick > > -----Original Message----- > From: Cutter (CFRelated) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 3:22 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: Best Practices for Web Site Traffic Tracking > > I've seen dedicated systems solely for parsing the logs. Can chew up a > lot of CPU resource. But, they (WebTrends) do have a hosted service that > only requires you adding a small scriptlet to pages. They work out > pricing according to your projected page hits, then incrementally raise > you if you go over your projections. Takes a lot of load off of your > systems, but does require some budget planning. > > When a user comes to a site we look for a cookie with an id. If it > exists we set a session var with the value (never checking for the > cookie again). If it doesn't, then we set the cookie and the (user) > session var. We also test for an unexpired 'session' id. If one doesn't > exist, then we set it. We then record the 'session' id and user id (once > per visit), and get the new record's id (for foreign key). Every page > click gets recorded to a table, including the timestamp, page name, > query string, site (since we do more than one), and the foreign key > tying it back to a session and user. We can then query on the foreign > key, ordering by timestamp, and see each page hit within the user's > session, from start to finish. We can, within the session, record other > information about a user (from a form submission or whatever) that we > also tie back through the foreign key. This now helps us tie specific > user information (when available) to a specific session, knowing what > time they arrived, time on site, time on page, what products they looked > at, what forms they submitted, etc. > > Chews up a lot of CPU. > > Cutter > ___________________ > http://blog.cutterscrossing.com > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion MX7 and Flex 2 Build sales & marketing dashboard RIAâs for your business. Upgrade now http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2 Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:270245 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
