Improving Web Sites and Citizen Service through Web Log Analysis

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Improving Web Sites and Citizen Service through
Web Log Analysis

• By Quinn Robinson
• Web/Network Administrator
• Municipal Research Services Center of Washington

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Improving Citizen Service on Local Government Web
Sites

• Install and run free, powerful Web site logfile
  analysis tools and generate reports
• Analyze reports in-depth and improve the content,
  user interface, browser support, search engine
  friendliness and flow of your Web sites
• Help citizens, other governments/agencies,
  public-private partners, and your staff succeed
  when they use your Web site

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No-Cost Web Log Analyzer Tools

• Analog - The most popular logfile analyser in
  the world
• AWStats - Free tool that generates advanced web,
  streaming, ftp or mail server statistics,
  graphically
• Webalizer - Fast, free Apache web server log file
  analysis program, producing HTML reports (not in
  presentation)

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Using Analog

• Download and install Analog to C\Analog 6.0
• See documentation for overview
• Copy logfile to C\Analog 6.0
• Customize C\Analog 6.0\analog.cfg file based on
  where your files are located
• In analog.cfg, change the LOGFILE, OUTFILE and
  HOSTNAME variables
• Run C\Analog 6.0\analog.exe
• Look for report in C\Analog 6.0\Report.html

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Using AWStats

• Download and install AWStats
• Download and install ActivePERL
• Copy AWStats files and logfile to correct folders
  
• Customize C\Program Files\AWStats\
  wwwroot\cgi-bin\awstats.model.conf file based on
  where your files are located
• Open command line, and run perl awstats.pl
  configmysite -output -staticlinks gt
  awstats.mysite.html

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Create AWStats Report

• Open command prompt
• Browse to C\Program Files\Analog\wwwroot
• Run perl awstats.pl configmysite -output
  -staticlinks gt awstats.mysite.html

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AWStats Features

• See readme.txt for full description of features
• An out-of-date comparison of AWStats, Analog,
  Webalizer and Hitbox is available at
  http//awstats.sourceforge.net/docs/awstats_compar
  e.html

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What to Analyze

• Top pages and resources (web applications) used
  by visitors
• User sessions (generally between 15 minutes and
  30 minutes)
• Traffic trends (business hours, weekdays,
  weekends, seasonal spikes)
• Web Browser usage
• Top hosts of web visitors
• Spider visits and robots.txt
• Screen sizes (if available)
• Search engine keywords
• HTTP Status Codes (404 Broken Links etc)
• Plugins (Adobe PDF and Flash, Microsoft
  Silverlight, JavaScript, Java, etc.)
• Audio and Video Usage

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Top pages and resources used by visitors

• Top pages
• Web applications
• Site sections (subfolders)
• Use of search to access these resources

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User sessions

• Coming up with a standard
• Looking at repeat users and sessions
• The IP address problem

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Traffic trends

• Business hours
• Weekdays
• Weekends
• Seasonal spikes

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Web Browser usage

• New browsers to test with (Google Chrome, iPhone,
  Windows Mobile 6.1, Blackberry, etc.)
• When to discontinue legacy browser support (IE
  6.x, Firefox 1.x, Netscape 7.x)
• Web standards support and backwards compatibility
  hacks

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Top hosts of web visitors

• Internal staff usage
• Search engine spiders
• Citizens
• Other governments and agencies
• Law firms
• City businesses

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Spider visits and robots.txt

• Blocking negative hosts using robots.txt and
  malicious bot blacklists
• Improving the ability of search engine crawlers
  to index your site
• Blocking content that shouldnt be public (MOVE
  IT TO YOUR INTRANET)
• Drive traffic to your site

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Screen sizes

• Determine whether you want a fixed width or if
  you want a stretchable page for wider screens
• Establish standards for contents

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Search engine keywords

• See how users access your sites
• Look for synonyms and add those to your pages
• Use popular search terms on pages

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HTTP Status Codes

• Fix pages with 404 errors
• Fix redirects
• Look at other errors

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Plugins

• Determining lowest common denominator
• Future usage of audio/video on site
• Delivering documents electronically (PDF)

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Audio and Video Usage

• Determining return on investment (not necessarily
  financial return)
• Tracking if usage is widespread or concentrated
• Third-party versus internal hosting

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Improving Citizen Service on Local Government Web
Sites

• Install and run web log analyzers
• Analyze reports and improve your site
• Help citizens, other governments/agencies,
  public-private partners, and your staff succeed
  when they use your Web site