Practical Web Traffic Analysis

Standards, Privacy, Techniques, and Results

Once you've got a web site up and running it is all too easy to sit back and relax. But how do you know you did a good job? How can you improve the site you have based on real user behaviour? Without getting feedback from your users, how will you find out how it's being used? Web traffic analysis allows you to gain some insight into your site users: where they come from, what pages they like, and how often they come back. However, as statistics are prone to being misinterpreted, your insight often has to be taken with a pinch of salt. This book takes you through the process of analyzing your traffic, without taking for granted the statistics that you generate. Assuming you have a web site, reading this book will help you learn: - The techniques for gathering data on your users - Standards and Guidelines you should adhere to when interpreting your data - What other sites are doing to ensure they respect the privacy of their users - Insight into how real sites use web traffic analysis - Major case case studies from BBC News Online, eBay, and ASPToday - Additional material from The Onion, SmartGirl, and The New York Times From the Publisher This book is for any web professional who wants to understand their site traffic. It's also for anyone with an interest in finding out where their site is most used, and how to make comparisons with other sites. To get the most from this book, you'll need access to log files for your web site as they contain the information we'll show you how to analyze. The book discusses the privacy practices of The Onion, SmartGirl, and The New York Times, as well as examining in detail the traffic analysis techniques used by BBC News Online, eBay, and ASPToday.