[thelist] Tracking Webpages

[Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com]

>This is a requirement from a client of mine to quote from his spec :-
>"It must be possible to identify visitors, and to record pages viewed, the
>way they navigate the site, and the key words submitted to search engines
>which brought them to the site, or from where they linked to the site."

There's an interesting problem with this, that skews the stats a little:

Go visit a web page. Any page, it doesn't matter.

Now type your website address in the address bar (or pick it out of your
bookmark list). Look at your referrer logs. The page you were viewing is
listed as the referrer, even though they had nothing to do with getting you
there.

Disclaimer: Haven't tried this in a couple of years, but that's the way it
used to work; maybe they've fixed the current crop.

This means that everyone listed as referring to you ain't always doin' it.
To get rock-solid numbers, you need to confirm the reference.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen.P.Walker at JCI.Com
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