The LevelTen Hit Counter is an advanced real-time web site statistics system. It creates a framework for you to intelligently analyze the traffic to your website and evalute the effectiveness of your site's design and marketing. This document will give you an introduction to how the software works and the conventions it uses.
Core components The LevelTen Hit Counter is made up of four primary components:
Practically every time a View is registered it is classified as a Page Hit by the server scripts. A Page Hit is simply when a new page is loaded into a browser. In fact, the only time a View is not classified as a Page Hit is when the browser reloads the page. Anytime a browser reloads or refreshes the View is classified as a Reload. Thus all Views are classified as Page Hits or Reloads.
When a visitor first enters your site, by browsing any page with the tracking code, the View is logged as a site Entry (and of course a Page Hit). An Entry also represents the start of a Session. A Session is a "construct" used by the scripts to group a set of Views to a specific browser during a user’s visit to the Site. As a browser navigates your Site, Page Hits are registered and chronologically recorded during the Session to form a Path.
Each Session creates a Path with and Entry page, Exit page and any other Page Hits that were viewed by the browser. Since web browsers do not maintain a constant connection with the web server, they only make a connection to request a new page, we cannot directly tell when a browser has left the site. Therefore the convention of a Session Timeout is used. When a browser has not requested a new page within the allotted time they are considered to have left the site. When this happens the last page they were on is logged as an Exit and the Path they used is archived.
When a visitor comes to your site for the first time, their Entry is classified as a New Visitor. If they ever return to your site then a new Entry is logged and a Session is created to track their Path. If they return more than 24 hours after their last visit then the new Entry is classified as a Unique. In other words their visit is unique to the last 24 hours. Any time a browser returns in less than 24 hours of their last visit the Entry is classified as an Intraday Session. In general Uniques are considered to be the most meaningful measure of your sites overall traffic.
Referrers & Search Engines When a browser enters your Site the place they were previously is called a Referrer. For example, a friend’s site theirdomain.com, might have a link to your site, yourdomain.com. When someone clicks this link, theirdomain.com is registered in the LevelTen Hit Counter as the Referrer. Referrers tell you how people found your site.
Some of the most important types of Referrers are those from a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo. When the LevelTen Hit Counter registers a Referrer from one of the major search engines it will also store the keyword phrase that was used by the visitor to find your site.
Only Referrers from other Web sites can be automatically tracked. If for example someone directly types your web address into their browser from a business card, yellow page ad, etc. then a Referrer is not logged for that Entry. Even certain hyperlinks such as those in E-Mails, Flash banners, or desktop applications cannot be automatically tracked as a Referrer.
While non-Web site hyperlink Referrers cannot be tracked by any Web statistics software, the LevelTen Hit Counter has a feature to add custom Referrers. These will allow you to track practically any marketing campaign, including: E-Mail, banner ads, Pay Per Clicks, and even off-line ads such as direct mail, print collateral, and mass media.
For more on setting up custom referrers look at Advanced Features.
Navigation, Paths, Conversions & Successes It is not enough to know how visitors got to your site, where they entered and what pages they've viewed. The LevelTen Hit Counter will also help you analyze browser behavior.
Two standard ways of analyzing behavior is reviewing Page Navigation and Paths. The LevelTen Hit Counter also uses two conventions, Conversions and Successes, to group behavior.
One of the most critical behaviors to analyze is what a visitor does when they first enter your site. Sometimes an Entry page will create a bad first impression and the visitor will immediately leave your site without looking at another page. This is called a Bounce. If the visitor does decide to proceed into your site by clicking to another page they are converted from a searcher to a browser, e.g. a Conversion.
Successes are similar to Conversions. A Visit is considered a Success if the visitor hits a pre-defined success page. When embedding the tracking code you can define certain pages to be success pages such as purchase pages, form submitions and contact pages.
For more on setting up success pages look at Advanced Features.