St Luke The Evangelist Parish Website Report #1

St Luke The Evangelist Parish Website Report #2

Prepared on October 10, 2006 for the Nov 2005 – Oct 2006 time period

By: Jorge E Nario, webmaster. Also available in pdf format.

Jump to: Analysis Graphs More_Info Appendix Contact

Introduction

As we discussed in report#1 (Oct 06), usage of a website can be measured in many dimensions. Most of the time by analyzing the logs that the website computer servers keep. Other times using techniques like page tagging, etc. At St Luke’s we use simple analysis of the automated logs kept by the website servers. We respect the privacy of our users so St Luke’s does not track its visitors’ identities.

Summary

We will use three different dimensions to measure our parish’s website usage. They will be hits, pages and “visits”. You can find a definition of each in the appendix section of this report.

No matter which measure we use, our parish’s website usage has steadily and significantly, increased month over month to several times what it was when we started tracking in November 2005. The numbers for October were even higher than September’s.

Analysis

Hits: In November 2005 we received 7,513 hits while in October 2006 we reached 72,150 hits, again a new record. This represents an overall increase of almost 10X (9.6X) or almost 10 times (960.3%) the original volume. In addition the hits in October (72,150) were 1.5 times (close to double) those of last month (45,565 in September).

Pages: November 2005 we shipped 1,307 pages while in October 2006 we shipped 9,330 pages which was also a new record. This represents an increase of 7X or seven times (713.8%) the original Nov 2005 volumes.

Visits: Using “visits”, in November 2005 we received 137 “visits” (keep in mind the term “visits” may be inaccurate). In October 2006 we received 2,689 “visits” which represents the largest percentage increase of all measures shown so far. This represents an increase of 19.6X, which is almost twenty times (1,962.8%) the original Nov 2005 visits!

Visits are subject to inaccuracies because we do not track users’ identities.
#1:Graph of hits per month

Month	Hits
Oct-06	72,150	960.3%
Sep-06	45565	606.5%
Aug-06	33640	447.8%
Jul-06	32996	439.2%
Jun-06	32298	429.9%
May-06	25443	338.7%
Apr-06	25537	339.9%
Mar-06	26716	355.6%
Feb-06	24453	325.5%
Jan-06	20368	271.1%
Dec-05	14179	188.7%
Nov-05	7513	100%

#2:Graph of pages served per month

#3:Graph of “visits” per month

See next pages for more information and percentage increases..

Actual number of “visits” and pages per month

Month
Month	Visits	Vol Incr	Pages	Vol Incr
Oct-06	2,689	1,962.8%	9,330	713.8%
Sep-06	2392	1746.0%	6730	514.9%
Aug-06	1662	1213.1%	5598	428.3%
Jul-06	1992	1454.0%	5804	444.1%
Jun-06	1777	1297.1%	4847	370.8%
May-06	1027	749.6%	3220	246.4%
Apr-06	1073	783.2%	3349	256.2%
Mar-06	983	717.5%	3315	253.6%
Feb-06	1139	831.4%	3575	273.5%
Jan-06	614	448.2%	2994	229.1%
Dec-05	553	403.6%	2613	199.9%
Nov-05	137	100.0%	1307	100.0%

Actual details including daily averages.

Month	Daily Avg				Monthly Totals
Month	Hits	Files	Pages	Visits *	Sites	KBytes	Visits *	Vis. Incr	Pages	Files	Hits
Oct-06	2,327	1,675	300	86	1,424	864,996	2,689	1,962.8%	9,330	51,938	72,150
Sep-06	1,518	1,106	224	79	1,132	550,104	2,392	1746.0%	6,730	33,196	45,565
Aug-06	1,085	844	180	53	1,041	463,971	1,662	1213.1%	5,598	26,177	33,640
Jul-06	1,064	777	187	64	1,095	372,517	1,992	1454.0%	5,804	24,089	32,996
Jun-06	1,076	771	161	59	951	359,595	1,777	1297.1%	4,847	23,142	32,298
May-06	820	543	103	33	640	258,825	1,027	749.6%	3,220	16,850	25,443
Apr-06	851	601	111	35	604	296,051	1,073	783.2%	3,349	18,043	25,537
Mar-06	861	603	106	31	590	279,507	983	717.5%	3,315	18,703	26,716
Feb-06	873	547	127	40	654	226,069	1,139	831.4%	3,575	15,324	24,453
Jan-06	657	394	96	19	473	264,445	614	448.2%	2,994	12,240	20,368
Dec-05	457	274	84	17	357	134,068	553	403.6%	2,613	8,502	14,179
Nov-05	577	188	100	10	62	31,823	137	100.0%	1,307	2,444	7,513
Totals 4,101,971							16,038	N/A	52,682	250,648	360,858

Daily numbers: We have gone from an average of 10 “visits”*, 100 pages, 188 files and 577 hits a day on November 2005, to an average of 86 “visits”*, 300 pages, 1,675 files and 2,327 average hits a day.

For definitions of all the terms used here, please see page 5.

* For privacy St Luke’s does NOT track its users’ identities, therefore “visits” is subject to inaccuracies made by the software models. All other numbers are much more accurate.

For more information, regarding this report please email me jorge@nario.com or webmaster@stlukes-parish.com .

APPENDIX

Let’s go over some key definitions:

* Hit – This term refers to a request for a file from the web server. This is the most popularly used dimension and in fact the number of hits received by a website is the most frequently cited measure to assert its popularity. This number can be misleading when used to compare more than one website because a single web-page typically consists of multiple (often dozens) of discreet files, each of which is counted as a hit as the page is downloaded. One website may have say 12 files per page (resulting in 12 hits per page) while another may have 18 files per page (resulting in 18 hits per page). So comparing hits for those two websites could be misleading. However, when used to compare volume for the same single website hits are a proper indicator of volume over time. Just remember number of hits does not equal number of pages served nor number of visitors.

(For technical readers, it should also be noted that this number can be inaccurate due to local caching).

* Page View - A request for a file whose type is defined as a page in log analysis. In log analysis, a single page view may generate multiple hits as all the resources required to view the page (images, .js and .css files) are also requested from the web server. This number will be lower than number of hits.

* “Visit” / Session - A series of requests from the same uniquely identified client with a set timeout. A visit is expected to contain multiple hits (in log analysis) and page views. This concept of a set timeout is not consistent from user to user and hence it could be misleading. Because of this, visits is more of an approximation.

* Visitor / Unique Visitor - The uniquely identified client generating requests on the web server (log analysis) or viewing pages (page tagging). A visitor can make multiple visits. Visits can still be miscounted depending on timeout values. Visitors can only be counted as unique if the visitor’s identity is tracked by the website. (St Luke’s does not track its visitor’s identity).

* Repeat Visitor - A visitor that has made at least one previous visit. Only relevant or possible if a visitor’s identity is tracked. (St Luke’s does not track its visitor’s identity).

* New Visitor - A visitor that has not made any previous visits. Only valuable if visitor’s identities are tracked. (St Luke’s does not track its visitor’s identity).

* Impression - An impression is each time an advertisement loads on a users screen. Anytime you see a banner that is an impression. (St Luke’s does not uses advertisement banners).

NOTE: we will not use items colored in red above because St Luke’s does not currently track its visitor’s identity.

REFERENCES / Bibliography

Some of the terminology used here is loosely based on terms defined on Wikipedia as of October 2006 (definitions can change real-time). You can visit Wikipedia at www.wikipedia.org for current definitions.

Some of the data represented here is based on calculations performed by the log analyzer software package Webalizer version 2.01. Webalizer can be reached at www.mrunix.net/webalizer/ .

This report is also available in pdf-format.

For more information, regarding this report please email me at jorge@nario.com or webmaster@stlukes-parish.com .