Traffic Analysis and Statistics

The importance of trends analysis

Any statistical measure is affected by errors. For example if we are measuring the average number of pages viewed by the visitors of your web site, we could obtain, say, 5 pages/visit on one day, and 6 pages/visit on the next day. Which measure is more precise? In statistical terms, the more precise measure is the one with the lower error, so if the measures are 5±10% and 6±15% we would conclude that the first measure is more precise.

A yet better choice than picking either one of the two measures is combining them in order to obtain a third more reliable value. This third value is calculated by weighing the two measures according to their errors, so that the first and more precise measure weighs more than the second one. The calculation yields in this case 5.25±8%, which represents a remarkable improvment over our previous information.

Extending this simple fact, we can improve the statistics' precision day after day, in a sort of successive improvement process. In this way each one of the daily measures contributes to the calculation of the best current estimate of a given traffic measure although, taken individually, it is affected by statistical noise.

As one can expect, since trend values are less affected by noise, they tend to oscillate far less than actual measures as illustrated in the example below.

The trend line has the following daily readings:

As you can see the precision of the trend value improves significantly. Until the last but one day that is, as we see next.

An essential component of our trend analysis is a mechanism to distinguish whether a daily measure is to be used to refine the current best estimate or if it rather indicates a new disruptive event in the traffic of your site. In the example above, in the last but one day in the interval we measured a value that significantly differed from the previous sequence.

We recognize such discontinuous events based on the calculation of the statistical distance between the daily measures and the current trend; If the distance is within a "reasonable" range, we deem the measure to be part of the same statistical process that generated the current trend; on the contrary, if the statistical distance is above a threshold, we consider the last measure to be an indication that a new trend might actually be starting, and consequently we don't combine it with the best estimate. In both cases the most reliable information is always available.

   How It Works

Turbo Web Stats offers a wide range of statistical analysis for you to be able to control the traffic of your web sites.

Using Turbo Web Stats is very easy. Once you sign up you will be given a short piece of JavaScript code that you have to include in every page that you wish to track. Without this piece of code we won't be able to track your page, so whenever you want to stop tracking a page simply remove that piece of code from your page.

Include the JavaScript code before the closing body tag of your pages.

   Statistics offered

 Statistics offered
Traffic Overviewbr>1. Number of visits Description Chart example
2. Number of page views Description Chart example
3. Number of page hits Description Chart example
4. Site navigation Description Chart example
Visits
5. Average visit length Description Chart example
6. Average number of pages viewed in a visit Description Chart example
7. Average number of pages hit in a visit Description Chart example
8. Histogram of visit length Description Chart example
9. Histogram of the number of page views in a visit Description Chart example
10. Histogram of the number of page hits in a visit Description Chart example
11. Histogram of visit origin (direct vs. back links) Description Chart example
12. Back links Description Chart example
Pages
13. Number of times the page is viewed Description Chart example
14. Number of times the page is hit Description Chart example
15. Probability that a visitor views the page Description Chart example
16. Average duration of page visit Description Chart example
17. Histogram of exit pages Description Chart example
18. Histogram of entry pages Description Chart example
Repeat Visits
19 Average number of times a visitor returns to your site Description Chart example
20 Histogram of the number of times a visitor returns to your site Description Chart example
Visitors Technology
21. Histogram of browsers Description Chart example
22. Histogram of screen resolution Description Chart example
23. Histogram of operating systems Description Chart example
24. The impact of the browser on the number of page hits Description Chart example
25. The impact of the screen resolution on the number of page hits Description Chart example
Search Analsysis
26. Keywords that take visitors to your web site from search engines Description Chart example
27. Histogram of traffic from search engines Description Chart example
Geographycal Distribution
28. Number of visitors grouped by country Description Chart example
29. Number of visitors grouped by geographycal region Description Chart example

Statistics details
1. 2. 3. Number of visits, page loads, and page hits

These counters count the daily number of visitors, page loads and page hits. They offer an overview of your site's traffic growth.

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4. Site navigation

The page-to-page paths followed by your visitors are showed in this highly informative and interactive graph. Click on the symbol of any page and you'll see what pages visitors came from and what pages the visitors will follow next. You can also see what are the exit pages (also more on this on graph 17), entry pages (see also graph 18) and, for each page, the referrers from external domain.

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5. Average visit length

The average visit duration is given in seconds. The duration of a visit is calculated by adding the individual pages' duration. Since the last visited page's duration is not detectable, the average duration of this page is used, as calculated from its recent history. The histogram details the percentage of your visitors who spend:

Up to 30 seconds
Between 30 sec. and 5 mins
Between 5 mins and 15 mins
Between 15 mins and 30 mins

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6. Average number of pages viewed in a visit

This report measures the average number of page loads per visit. This information can be useful in order to understand how deep your visitors go on your site.The histogram details the percentage of your visitors who visited:

Only one page
Between 2 and 5 pages
Between 6 and 10 pages
Between 11 mins and 20 pages

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7. Average number of pages hit in a visit

This report measures the average number of page hits per visit. This information can be useful in order to understand how deep your visitors go on your site.The histogram details the percentage of your visitors who visited:

Only one page
Between 2 and 5 pages
Between 6 and 10 pages
Between 11 mins and 20 pages

Up Chart example
8. Histogram of visit length

The average visit duration is given in seconds. The duration of a visit is calculated by adding the individual pages' duration. Since the last visited page's duration is not detectable, the average duration of this page is used, as calculated from its recent history. The histogram details the percentage of your visitors who spend:

Up to 30 seconds
Between 30 sec. and 5 mins
Between 5 mins and 15 mins
Between 15 mins and 30 mins

Up Chart example
9. Histogram of the number of page views in a visit

This report measures the average number of page loads per visit. This information can be useful in order to understand how deep your visitors go on your site.The histogram details the percentage of your visitors who visited: * Only one page * Between 2 and 5 pages * Between 6 and 10 pages * Between 11 mins and 20 pages

Up Chart example
10. Histogram of the number of page hits in a visit

This report measures the average number of page hits per visit. This information can be useful in order to understand how deep your visitors go on your site.The histogram details the percentage of your visitors who visited: * Only one page * Between 2 and 5 hits * Between 6 and 10 hits * Between 11 mins and 20 hits

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11. Histogram of visit origin (direct vs. back links)

This chart shows the proportion of direct visitors (i.e. from bookmarks or direct address) versus those who came from external domains.

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12. Back links

This chart shows the number of visitors (in absolute value and relative percentage) caming from your external referrers

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13. Number of times the page is viewed

From this chart you can not only assess the number of times a page is viewed, but you can also compare it with other pages in the web site.

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14. Number of times the page is hit

From this chart you can not only assess the number of times a page is hit, but you can also compare it with other pages in the web site.

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15. Probability that a visitor views the page

This chart shows you the percentage of visitors who have seen a given page. Comparision with other pages is also availble.

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16. Average duration of a page visit

This chart tells you how long your visitors on average read a given page.

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17. Histogram of exit pages

This chart ranks the pages of your site according to the number of times they were last seen by your visitors.

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18. Histogram of entry pages

This chart ranks the pages of your site according to the number of times they were the first page seen by your visitors.

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19. Average number of times a visitor returns to your site

This report measures the average number of times that your visitors have visited your site. The histogram details the percentage among first-time visitors, second-time visitors and so on.

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20. Histogram of the number of times a visitor returns to your site

This report measures the average number of times that your visitors have visited your site. The histogram details the percentage among first-time visitors, second-time visitors and so on.

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21. Histogram of browsers

This report breaks down the number of visits based on the browser type. This information can be useful in order to make an informed decision on which browser your site should be optimized for.

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22. Histogram of screen resolution

This report breaks down the number of visits based on the screen resolution. Like the previous report, this information can be used for site optimization.

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23. Histogram of operating systems

This report breaks down the number of visits based on the operating system.

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24. The impact of the browser on the subsequent number of page hits

This chart shows if the there is any bias in the number of pages hit by your visitors due to the browser they are employing. The first page hit is excluded by the analysis because it is counted before the browser renders the page and therefore it does not provide any information about a potential bias.

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25. The impact of the screen resolution on the number of page hits

This chart shows if the there is any bias in the number of pages hit by your visitors due to their screen resolution. The first page hit is excluded by the analysis because it is counted before it is showed on the screen and therefore it does not provide any information about a potential bias.

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26. Keywords that take visitors to your web site from search engines

This report lists the 100 top-most keywords (or phrases) used by your visitors when finding your site through the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL). The highly detailed information provided includes: Absolute/relative numbers of visitors who used the keywords, and a for each keyword a breakdown among the four search engines mentioned before.

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27. Histogram of traffic from search engines

This chart ranks four search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL) according to their ability to send visitors to your web site.

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28. Number of visitors grouped by country

This report ranks the countries according to the location of your visitors.

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29. Number of visitors grouped by geographycal region

This chart compares six different geographyc regions (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Japan) according to the location of your visitors.