How to Monitor Internet Traffic
Monitoring the Internet traffic on your website can be achieved using a variety of different services. Some services come bundled with your web host, while others can generate tracking information using pieces of code you insert into your web pages. Each of the services have their advantages and disadvantages, and many website owners use multiple stat-tracking applications to ensure that the information that they report is accurate. Installation of most tracking software is quick and straightforward, and you may find that one of the services is already enabled on your web host.
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Instructions
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Log in to your web host's control panel and click on the "Webalizer" link, if one exists. Click on the month containing the information you wish to view. Webalizer maintains records of the links your visitors click on, the most common entry pages (the pages from which visitors enter your site), the most common exit pages (the pages from which visitors leave your site), the referrer (who sent the visitor to your site) and any search strings your visitors used to find your page. Webalizer also generates graphs that plot the changes in your visits from day to day within the month.
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Insert Google Analytics code into your web page by signing up for a Google account. The code must be placed manually on every page of your website, but this can be done by including the code in your site's header or footer, if one exists. The code can also be placed on specific pages if you want to analyze only a few pages in your site. Google Analytics can track the amount of time visitors spend on your site, how much time they spend on each page, where they click on your pages and where they are coming from. Google Analytics is free and does not require any special software.
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Download and install AWstats, a tracking application that must be installed in your web host's root folder in order to function properly. AWstats is the most complex of the three tracking options, as it requires administrative-level access to the server, which is often not available on most hosting plans. AWstats can display the browsers of your users, their operating systems and their countries of origin, along with how much time they spent on your website, what pages they viewed and what they did to exit your site. AWstats can also generate a raw text log of your visitors, displaying their habits organized by visitor IP address.
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