Tech Forum

I was curious if anyone could tell me what web metrics software is used for the church sites and whether log files or page tagging was being used. I couldn't find any page tags so I assume it is log files that are used. I've been doing web metrics for nearly 10 years now and have seen all of the changes that have taken place especially in the past 2-3 years. I'm curious how the church is using that technology.

I think that we use a form of page tagging for sites like LDS.org however I'm not sure and have asked for clarification. Does anyone know of a good open source metrics tool that can be used behind an enterprise class firewalls and load balancers? I'm looking for something for this site. The built in metrics to Joomla work on IP addresses which I can't use because of our network architecture.

Tom

Does it need to be open source or can it be free from a vendor? Also, do you want page tagging or log file analyzer?

Several way to get stats on users: web logs, 1x1 pixel, javascript, etc. Each has pros and cons.

Being a webmaster of a club, I wanted to know more about users hitting the site. I looked at doing javascript but because I didn't have a scripting language on the server side (nor a database) I couldn't find an easy, inexpensive solution. I didn't have access to the logs so I couldn't use anything like Analog.

The method I choose was to use a javascript placed in the header of all my pages. This header called a free service to http://www.google.com/analytics/ Now, the service might not be free for everyone; check the user agreement. Google had step by step instructions on how to set everything up.

Google does try to give you a graph where your visitors come from based on IP address. This is flawed when you start looking at some ISPs (like AOL) or large corporations that use proxy servers. Because each user has to hit code on google's site, it is able to see all unique visitors and even track their path. I can even see what search was used to find my website.

There are other companies that offer services similar to google. All that I looked at required placing some little bit of code on each page. The code is not unique for each page so it could be placed in some include, header, or footer file.

Here are a list that I found:
http://www.omniture.com/products/web_analytics
http://www.onestat.com/
http://www.statcounter.com/
http://www.ewebcounter.com/

Matt