Urchin Demo (12/14/05)

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1 Urchin Demo (12/14/05) General Info / FAQs 1. What is Urchin? Regent has purchased a license for Urchin 5 Web Analytics Software. This software is used to analyze web traffic and produce reports on website visitors. This product is a replacement for WebTrends and is hosted, configured and administered by IT. 2. What is the difference between WebTrends and Urchin? Urchin works differently than WebTrends in that the web traffic data is stored in a database and is retrieved dynamically when a user requests a report. WebTrends simply created static html reports for viewing. Urchin allows the user to customize reports in a number of ways as well as export reports into Word and Excel. 3. What is the status of the migration from WebTrends to Urchin? Urchin has been online for approximately 2 months and contains data from January 2005 forward. WebTrends reports will be produced and posted through December 2005 and then discontinued. This provides one full year of overlap. The existing WebTrends reports ( will remain online indefinitely. 4. How do I access Urchin? Urchin reports are accessed via the web at: Each school has an account which allows them to see the data for their website. The account username/password has been ed to the school s web publisher. 5. How often is Urchin data updated? The web server log files rotate every Monday night at midnight and every last day of a month at midnight. Generally, on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week the rotated log file will be processed into Urchin. 6. How can Urchin reports be customized? The report date range can be set to any start and end date. Most detail reports can be customized by changing how many items to show per page and sorting by item or item count. The filter can be used to include/exclude items that match a user defined string. 7. Can I export or print the reports? Urchin allows for reports to be exported to a text file, Word document or Excel spreadsheet. There is also a printer-friendly version of all reports. There are icons on the top-right of each report for accessing these options. 8. What if I need help? There is help information available at the bottom of each report including definitions of key terms. Recently Google acquired Urchin; therefore, the help links redirect to Google pages. Look for Urchin Software Help Center. Regent is NOT using Google Analytics. If you don t find an answer there or have questions about Regent s configuration and use of Urchin, please contact web development. 1

2 Traffic Menu These are summary reports of website traffic. Sessions Graph This graph displays the number of visitor sessions per day for the selected date range. We use IP+User-Agent with a timeout of 30 minutes for visitor tracking. In other words, all requests with a certain IP address and browser type and version are considered a single session. If no requests are received for a 30 minute period, that session is considered to have ended. Another request at that point would be considered a new session. There is a definition of session at the bottom of the screen. It references the Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM), which is not currently in use. The UTM requires a line of javascript code to be placed on every page of your website as well as some configuration by IT. Pageviews Graph This graph displays the number of pageviews per day for the selected date range. Requests for html and cfm files are considered pageviews, while requests for images and stylesheets are not. There is a definition of pageviews at the bottom of the screen. The pageviews and sessions graphs provide a good means for measuring overall website traffic volume. Hits Graph This graph displays the number of hits per day for the selected date range. Hits include all webserver requests, including images, stylesheets, javascript, etc. Bytes Graph This graph displays the number of bytes of data downloaded per day for the selected date range. This information probably isn t very useful, except for IT folks concerned with bandwidth. Summary This table displays a summary of the above data as well as daily averages and per session averages over the selected time frame. Load Balancing These reports would display the load handled by each web server if more than one web server were serving the website. We do have a second web server in a co-lo facility in northern Virginia, but it s currently in failover mode and won t process requests unless the web server here is down or unreachable. At this time, these reports are immaterial. 2

3 Pages & Files Menu These are detailed reports of website traffic that focus on the pages/files accessed. Requested Pages This report displays detailed counts and percentages of page views by individual page. We configure what filename extensions are not considered page views. For example, requests for gif, jpg and css files are not counted as page views. Downloads This report displays detailed counts and percentages of documents downloaded from the website. We configure what filename extensions are considered downloads. Currently, documents with the following filename extensions are included in this report: pdf,zip,exe,sh,tar,gz,dmg,pkg,doc,xls,ppt. Page Query Terms This report displays all requested pages which had query parameters in the request URL. Query parameters are the name/value pairs that appear after a question mark in the URL. The user can choose a page to see the parameter names and then choose a parameter name to see the various values passed for that parameter. Posted Forms This report displays the form handlers used on the website. Only POST requests are displayed. Most schools won t have anything show up here as ennyfrms.cgi is used predominantly for handling form input and it resides outside of the school websites. Status and Errors This report displays the codes returned from the server for all web server requests. The most interesting is the 404 (not found) errors. Choose this to see all the files requested, but not found on the website. This is a good mechanism for cleaning up broken links and images. All Files This report displays all requests for files on the website, including html files, images, stylesheets and javascript files. It can be viewed by Hits or by Bytes. Directory Drilldown This report displays page views, file requests and bytes transferred at the directory (folder) level. This is a good way to see which sections of the website are the most active and where users go within each section. File Types This report displays a summary of requests and bytes transferred by file type. This is probably not particularly useful information. 3

4 Navigation These are detailed reports that focus on the activity of website visitors. Entrance Pages This report displays the first page viewed for each session, which shows how visitors are coming into the website. This provides an opportunity to review the content of certain pages in the context that they are the first pages viewed by visitors. Exit Pages This report displays the last page viewed for each session, which shows the pages that visitors view last before leaving the website. This provides an opportunity to review the content of certain pages in an effort to retain lost visitors. Bounce Rate This report displays the pages where visitors entered the website and left the website without viewing any other page. A high bounce rate may indicate that a page is lacking in content or in providing a logical navigation path. Click Paths This report displays the paths traveled by website visitors through the website. Urchin is currently configured to report up to 5 levels of a path (5 pages). This provides some insight into how visitors are navigating through the website. Click To and From This report allows the user to choose a page on the website and see what pages visitors came from that viewed the page and where visitors went after viewing the page. Length of Page View This report displays the average amount of time visitors spent on each page. Using the filter to look at specific pages is probably the best way to use this. Depth of Session This graph displays the number of page views per session. Length of Session This graph displays the amount of time users are spending on the website. 4

5 Referrals These are detailed reports that focus on how visitors get to the website. Referrals This report displays where visitors to the website are coming from. (no referral) means the visitors came directly to the website (used a favorite/bookmark or typed URL). means a search on the Regent website ( Referral Drilldown This report displays the domains from which visitors came. Users can drilldown to see what particular pages referred visitors. Search Terms This report displays the keywords/phrases visitors entered into search engines to find the website. Search Engines This report displays the search engines that referred visitors to the website. Users can drilldown to see the keywords/phrases that website visitors entered in each search engine. Referral Errors This report displays requests for non-existent items on the website. Users can drilldown to see what pages contain the bad links. This is a good way to find out about bad links from other websites. 5

6 Domains & Users These are detailed reports that focus on where website visitors come from. Domains This report displays the networks website visitors are using. no entry means that the network could not be resolved. private-10-net means the internal Regent network. There will be a few search engine spiders listed such as inktomisearch.com and googlebot.com as well as ISPs such as cox.net and aol.com. Domain Drilldown This report displays the top-level domains website visitors are coming from. Users can drilldown to see the breakdown of domains within each top-level domain. Countries This report displays top-level domains from which visitors came with labels for political affiliation. This is good for seeing traffic from foreign countries. IP Addresses This report displays the IP addresses of website visitors. Users can click the IPs for detailed information about who owns the IP. IP Drilldown This report displays the IP addresses of website visitors broken down by class. Usernames These reports display hits, bytes and sessions by username for password protected directories on the website. 6

7 Browsers & Robots These are detailed reports that focus on the software visitors use to access the website. Browsers These reports show the browser types used to access the website. Users can drilldown to see specific browser version numbers. Platforms These reports show the operating systems visitors to the website are using. Users can drilldown to see specific version info. Combos These reports show the browser type and version - operating system version combos used to access the website. Robots These reports show the robots (search engine spiders) that access the website. Users can drilldown to see specific version info. 7