Interpreting stats 1

[Glasgow]

Using a freebie tool (WebLog Expert Lite) to analyse search engine stats, I get a statistic of 2800+ in a 'Searches' column for Google within a 'Top Search Engines' display.

Elsewhere in the stats, under 'Top referring sites' there are shown to be a total of less than 100 referrals from different URLs. I would have expected a match - i.e. 2800 or thereabouts

Is the first figure showing me how many times the site has been listed in a google search only - i.e. including cases where the user may not have followed through on the link? While the second figure shows who has actually clicked on one of the google links?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Glasgow]

Sorry, the second paragraph should have read 'different Google URLs'.

 

[ChrisHirst]

The second one probably only refers to the unique Google referers. So if there are 50 entries for a search on red+widgets, that would only count as one in the "top referrers"

Whereas the first figure would be every occurence of a google referer.

Just an educated guess BTW as I don't know or use the product.


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Glasgow]

Thanks Chris - I see where you're coming from but I have a feeling this is not the root of the problem. I just got this reply from the WebLog people:

The program shows referrers from Google that contain keywords (and can be correctly recognized by the program) in the search engine statistics only. You can show them in the referrer statistics too by enabling the "Show search engines in referrers" option.

Which does not really help me a lot but I think what the argument boils down to is that search engines should not appear under Referers and I'm not sure why they do.

I downloaded another tool and got results that made a bit more sense to me.

 

[ChrisHirst]

I usually recommend FunnelWeb



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Glasgow]

OK thanks. Good to know. I'll try it.

 

[Glasgow]

Tried funnelweb. Looks good so thanks again.

The explanation (just received) as to why google appears as a 'referrer' as well as a search engine is as follows:

Some referrers cannot be recognized or shown correctly. Some of them are non-search referrers. The program also doesn't parse searches using the "Advanced Search" feature in Google because multiple search phrases and various other parameters can be specified at the same time so it's not possible to show correct information on search phrases in this case.