Web Glossary - Following are definitions for terms used throughout the World-Wide Web in general. These terms are to help understand web stats reports.
Ad: A graphic or a banner on a Web page that when clicked on, takes the visitor to another site.
Ad Clicks: A click on an advertisement on a Web site which takes a visitor to another site, it is referred to as an ad click.
Ad Views: A Web page that presents an ad. Once the visitor has viewed an ad, he/she can click on it (see Ad Click). There may be more than one ad on an ad view.
Authentication: Technique that limits access to Internet or intranet resources to those visitors who identify themselves by entering a username and password.
Bandwidth: Measure (in kilobytes of data transferred) of the traffic on the site.
Browser: A program used to locate and view HTML documents (Netscape, Mosaic, Microsoft Explorer, for example.)
Click through rate: Percentage of visitors who click on a viewed advertisement. This is a good indication of the effectiveness of this ad.
Client: The browser (see above) used by a visitor to a Web site.
Client Errors: An error occurring due to an invalid request by the visitor's browser. Client errors are in the 400-range. See "Return Code" definition.
Cookies: Persistent Client-State HTTP Cookies are files containing information about web site visitors (e.g., user name and preferences). This information is provided by the visitor during the first visit to a web server. The server records this information in a text file and stores this file on the visitor's hard drive. At the start of subsequent visits, the server looks for the cookie and configures itself based on the information provided.
Domain Name: The text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet (i.e., www.guyrcook.com).
Domain Name Lookup: The process of converting a numeric IP address into a text name.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol is a standard method of sending files between computers over the Internet.
Filters: A means of narrowing the scope of a report or view by specifying ranges or types of data to include in or exclude.
Forms: An HTML page which passes variables back to the server. These pages are used to gather information from visitors. Also referred to as scripts.
GIF: Graphics Interchange Format is an image file format commonly used in HTML documents.
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language is used to write documents for the World Wide Web to specify hypertext links between related objects and documents.
HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a standard method of transferring data between a Web server and a Web browser.
Hit: An action on the Web site, such as when a visitor views a page or downloads a file.
Home Page: The main page of a Web site. The home page provides visitors with an overview and links to the rest of the site. It often contains or links to a Table of contents for the site.
Home Page URL: The local path or Internet URL to the default page of the Web site for which traffic reports will be generated.
IP Address: Internet Protocol address identifying a computer/host connected to the Internet.
JPEG: Joint Photographic Expert Group - Compressed graphic format common on the Internet.
Log File: A file created by a Web or proxy server which contains all of the access information regarding the activity on that server.
Page Views: Also called Page Impressions. Hits to HTML pages only (non-HTML documents are not counted).
Platform: The operating system (i.e. Windows 95, Windows NT, etc.) used by a visitor to the site.
Protocol: An established method of exchanging data over the Internet.
Referrer: URL of an HTML page that refers to the site.
Return Code: The return status of the request which specifies whether the transfer was successful and why.
Possible "Success" codes are:
200 = Success: OK
201 = Success: Created
202 = Success: Accepted
203 = Success: Partial Information
204 = Success: No Response
205 = Success: Cached
206 = Success: Partial Content
300 = Success: Redirected
301 = Success: Moved
302 = Success: Found
303 = Success: New Method
304 = Success: Not Modified
305 = Success : Use Proxy
Possible "Failed" codes are:
400 = Failed: Bad Request
401 = Failed: Unauthorized Access
402 = Failed: Payment Required
403 = Failed: Forbidden Access
404 = Failed: Page or File Not Found
405 = Failed: Method Not Allowed
406 = Failed: Not Acceptable
407 = Failed: Proxy Authentication Required
408 = Failed: Request Timeout
409 = Failed: Conflict
410 = Failed: Gone
411 = Failed: Length Required
412 = Failed: Precondition Failed
413 = Failed: Request Entity Too Large
414 = Failed: Request-URI Too Large
415 = Failed: Unsupported Media Type
500 = Failed: Internal Error
501 = Failed: Not Implemented
502 = Failed: Temporarily Overloaded
503 = Failed: Service Unavailable
504 = Failed: Gateway Timeout
505 = Failed: HTTP Version Not Supported
Server: A computer that hosts information available to anyone accessing the Internet.
Server Error: An error occurring at the server. Web server errors have codes in the 500 range.
Spiders: An automated program which searches the internet.
Suffix: (Domain Name) The three digit suffix of a domain can be used to identify the type of organization.
Possible "Suffixes" are:
.com = Commercial
.edu = Educational
.int = International
.gov = Government
.mil = Military
.net = Network
.org = Organization
URL: Uniform Resource Locator is a means of identifying an exact location on the Internet. For example, http://www.guyrcook.com/about.htm is the URL which defines the use of HTTP to access the Web page about.htm in the /public directory of this Web site. As the previous example shows, a URL is comprised of four parts: Protocol Type (HTTP), Machine Name (guyrcook.com), Directory Path (for a subfolder if needed), and File Name (about.htm).
User Agent: Fields in an extended Web server log file identifying the browser and platform used by a visitor.
Visit: Commonly called Visit or User Session. All activity for one visitor of a Web site. By default, a visit is terminated when a visitor is inactive for more than 30 minutes.