Data Mining Overview
While the default reports available in SmarterStats provide a general overview of the various statistics extracted from
your log files, data mining allows site administrators and users to drill-down and
analyze statistical data on a deeper level. These reports are an invaluable resource
for tracking customers through your ordering process, for seeing which marketing
campaigns are providing the highest return on your investment(s) or for a variety
of other tasks requiring a large-scale, detailed analysis of website traffic.
To reduce the complexity often associated with data mining, you can associate a Query Item, and the data returned, to an intuitive question and answer format. For example, by asking the
questions, "What are the Referrers of this file?" or "What Paths were taken through a particular Page?" Using this simple method, businesses can get the insight they need to evaluate things like the effectiveness of an online marketing or advertising campaign.
To access data mining reports, click the Data Mining icon. You'll be presented with the following:
Query Items
The type of data returned in Data Mining is dependent on what it is you want to dig down into. By default, SmarterStats offers the following Query Types in the Navigation Pane:
Daily Activity
This query allows you to select a single page or resource
contained within your website and see the daily activity over time. This type of
mining is good to identify trends in the activity of that resource and to see if people
are accessing the file more or less than they used to.
Entry Pages
This query allows you to select a single page contained within
your website and see the top pages used to access the page. This is a particularly
useful form of data mining that allows you to track where people are coming from
when they access a specific page. For example, if a page is specified in an advertising
campaign or marketing campaign, users can see exactly how people are accessing that
page and verify any information that is given by the particular site that contains
the advertising.
Exit Pages
This query allows you to select a single page contained within
your website and see the last pages people viewed before exiting the website. This
is useful in order to track how far users get in a process (such as placing an order)
and where they are exiting your site.
IP Addresses
This query allows you to track which visitors (IP addresses)
most often requested a file on your website. When used in conjunction with other
data mining queries, this report is helpful in understanding the behavior of visitors
that request certain files.
Paths through Page
This query allow you to track the most common paths
taken for visitors that request a specific file. This report is useful in understanding
how visitors are accessing various files on your website.
Query Items
This query allows you to view the various query string items
that are passed to a particular page of your website. A typical example is the SmarterStats
help system. Whenever anyone clicks on the "Help" graphic or a "What is this?" link
within a specific report, a query string is passed from the SmarterStats application
to the SmarterTools Online Help. This query string relates to the particular page
or report the user is seeking help with. This report shows which individual items
were passed to generate the page. Note: This report differs from the Query Strings
report in that it separates each query string item and reports them individually.
For example, assuming you have a hit that looks like /help/default.aspx?section=Administrator&page=Getting+Started.
The Query Items report will show two lines: One for section=Administrator and one
for page=Getting+Started. Conversely, the Query Strings report will show one line
that looks like section=Administrator&page=Getting+Started.
Query Strings
This query allows you to view the various query strings that
are passed to a particular page of your website. A typical example is the SmarterStats
help system. Whenever anyone clicks on the "Help" graphic or a "What is this?" link
within a specific report, a query string is passed from the SmarterStats application
to the SmarterTools Online Help. This query string relates to the particular page
or report the user is seeking help with. This report shows which query string was
passed to generate the page. Note: This report differs from the Query Items report
in that it does not separate query string items. For example, assuming you have
a hit that looks like /help/default.aspx?section=Administrator&page=Getting+Started.
The Query Items report will show two lines: One for section=Administrator and one
for page=Getting+Started. Conversely, the Query Strings report will show one line
that looks like section=Administrator&page=Getting+Started.
Referrers
This query is useful for marketing or to detect image leeching.
For example, if you have an image that you have exposed on other websites that resides
on your Web server, the URL it was viewed on is recorded every time a browser views
your image. This report will list the top URLs or "referrals" in which your image
was viewed. If you have a nice graphic, chances are that someone else will want
to use it on their website. If they link your image path to their website, this
report will list the top URLs that the image or graphic is viewed from.
Referring Sites
This query reports the original source of visitors that
came into your site that eventually hit the page or file you choose. This can be
most useful for marketing purposes. For example, if you have a "Thank You" page
after a person orders your product, you can identify the original sources of visitors
that reached that page, effectively discovering where your orders came from.
Usernames
This query allows you to track which authenticated users hit a specific page of your site. This report is useful
in understanding the behavior of specific visitors on your website.
Visitor Bandwidth
This query allows users to track the bandwidth usage, total bandwidth
usage, and the IP address of requests for specific files you have placed on your
website. This report is most useful in detecting web site abuse. Typically, you
will identify a high-bandwidth file from Top Files or a related report item, then
start data mining on it to discover if there are a few IP addresses that are attempting
to use your bandwidth by repeatedly downloading files. Those IP addresses can then
be metered or denied access on your Web server.
Visits Before Hit
This query allows you to select a single page contained
within your website and see the number of times a person visited the site prior
to reaching and viewing the page selected. The report itself shows the IP address
of the visitor, the initial entry page for that visitor before they viewed the page
selected, and the number of visits before the page selected was viewed.
World Cities
This query allows you to identify the geographic regions that
accessed a specific file on your website.
Top Files from IP Address
This query allows you to track the files most
commonly requested by a particular IP address. This report is useful in understanding
the behavior of specific visitors on your website.
Top Paths from IP Address
This query allows you to track the most common
paths taken by an IP address during its visits to your website. This report is useful
in understanding the behavior of specific visitors on your website.
Report Options
- Filename - The file to be data mined. To browse for a specific file, click
the folder icon to the right.
- Start and End Date - The time frame on which the data mining report statistics
are generated.
- Chart - The chart type displayed in the data mining report.
- Group By - When available, the timeframe you want the data returned to be grouped by. (E.g., Weekly)
- Sort - The column that will be used to sort the data in the report. (E.g., Views)
- Rows - The number of rows in the data mining report.
- Filter Set - If a filter set exists, this allows you to seledt the filter set that should be applied to the data mining report.
Where applicable, you can also perform data mining by selecting it from the dropdown arrow next to items
returned in a report.
Copyright © SmarterTools Inc. All rights reserved.