MatrixStats is a fully comprehensive graphical
web statistics package that can show you exactly who, where and when
people are visiting your web site.
MatrixStats
comes with its own on-line help pages. However, here are some explanations
of what the data means and how to get around the wealth of data
available.
Hits verses Sessions
Many sites rely on hit counters to
measure the number of visitors. However, this is by no means an
accurate way of measuring site traffic. Hits can be registered every
time the refresh button is clicked on the browser or when a visitor
returns back to the page being measured. This overestimates the
volume of traffic.
MatrixStats uses a more accurate approach
by counting sessions, i.e. individual user visits, cataloguing length
of user visits, which pages they have visited and which browser
they viewed your site on.
The wealth of data available on MatrixStats
can be rather daunting at first, but once you get to grips with
the volume of information you will be able to see exactly how well
your web site is performing.
What's on MatrixStats
On loading the MatrixStats homepage, you will
be presented with summary statistics for the past 24 hours.
You can amend the timespan using the calendar by
selecting the start date and then the finish date. You can select
a week, month or longer timespans.
Clicking on a menu link will open the options available
for that section. Analysis will show a summary
for each section.
Tracking
Tracking will show you whose currently looking at
your site and specific site watches you have configured.
Summaries
Full analytical breakdown of the number of sessions
served, page usage, browser and platform usage, referrer activity
- where are your visitors coming from and who were there sessions
by - where do your visitors come from.
This can be presented for Yesterday, Last Week or
Last Month
This is the place to start to understand your statistics!
We recommend you print this page to get a good understanding of
what the numbers mean.
From the Summaries section you can take a deeper
look at the various areas analysed by MatrixStats.
Usage
The analysis page repeats the data presented
in the summary.
Kilobytes - The bytes transferred report details
the number of bytes sent and received from the site.
Hits - Usage by hits shows the number of files
served by the site within the specified time range. The hits report
details all files, not just those with a defined type.
Pages - The 'Page hits' report details the number
of requests for documents recognised as pages rather than other
files such as images or downloads.
Session Bytes - The bytes per session report
shows how many bytes were transferred on average per session.
Session Hits - The hits per session report shows
how many hits were recorded on average per session.
Session Time - The time per session report shows
the average amount of time between the first and last requests
from a single session.
Sessions - The Sessions report details the number
of visitors to the site.
Pages
The analysis page repeats the data presented
in the summary.
Map- The usage maps report displays a user-customisable
hierrachy of the site.
Page Views - The most popular pages report details
the most commonly requested pages on the site.
Page Errors - The Most Common Errors report details
the pages which generated an error when requested.
Downloads - The Most Popular Downloads report
details the requests for files which are recognised as downloads
(rather than pages)
Download Errors -The Most Common Download Errors
report details the downloads which generated an error when requested.
Least Views - The Least Viewed report details
those pages which were viewed the least.
Entry Point - The Session entry points report
shows which pages were the first to be requested by visitors to
the site.
Exit Point - The Session exit points report shows
which pages were the last to be requested by visitors to the site.
Viewed Once - The only page viewed report details
sessions which only requested one page during their navigation
of the site.
Directory - The directory report groups page
requests into their web directories.
Browsers
The analysis page repeats the data presented
in the summary.
Agent Type - The agent type report details the
web browsers used to connect to the site.
User OS - what operating system visitors were
using.
Browser Tag - shows all variants of browser/operating
system used.
Robot Tag- The Robot Tags report details the
information sent by the web browser to the web site when a request
is made.
Referrers by
The analysis page repeats the data presented
in the summary.
URLs -The Referring URLs report details the referrals
to this site from locations not matching the descriptions of any
known search engines.
Broken Links- The broken link report details
all pages requested which returned a 404 'Not found' error message
from the site.
Spongers - The Spongers report details referrals
from external pages to non-page files on the site. Indicated users
possibly downloading images.
Domains - The Referring Domains report summarises
all non-search engine referrals into their domains.
Search Eng - The Search Engine report details
all referrals from sites recognised as Internet search engines.
Keywords - The Search Engine Keywords report
details individual words used to find the site from a recognised
search engine during the selected time period.
Phrases - The Search Engine Keywords report details
phrases used, or groups of words used together, to find the site
from a recognised search engine during the selected time period.
Sessions
by
The analysis page repeats the data presented
in the summary.
Network - The network report details sessions
by the cat-C network of the client request.
Host Name- The Sessions by Hostname report shows
the resolved host names for clients to the site.
TLDs - The Sessions by Host Domain report groups
all resolved client IP addresses into their top level domains.
Location - The Sessions by Network Location report
details sessions by their physical location.
