Every web server collects data that can be used to perform log analysis and generate web stats. Log analysis and web stats are generally used to measure web site performance, but are also very useful for identifying usability issues and successes. Performing log analysis and to create before and after web stats can also help to measure the success of a usability fix, or compare solutions.
Your web stats will show a couple of basic measurements that are great for determining site performance: page views and visits. Page views measure the number of times a particular page has been accessed by a user. Visits measure the number of times a person has visited the site and viewed one or more pages.
Log analysis and web stats are also effective for identifying usability issues, particularly with a site’s navigation. When thinking about usability, you should look beyond page views and visits and examine some other stats:
Top Exit Pages
An exit page is the last page a person views on a web site before leaving. If many site visitors are leaving your site from a particular page, then it may be a navigational dead-end or contain a serious usability problem. For example, If a search results page is among the top exit pages, it usually means that users are not able to find what they are looking for, and are giving up. Likewise, customers abandoning a confusing shopping cart will show up in your top exit pages.
Top Entry Pages
An entry page is the first page a person views on a web site. A site’s homepage is almost always the top entry page. It is others that are more interesting. These can tell you where your users are deep-linking to, either from bookmarks or other sites. It’s worthwhile to examine these pages to make sure that they’re easily accessible through your site navigation, and that, conversely, the rest of the site is easily accessible from your top entry pages.
Internal Searches
If a site has an internal search engine, the queries entered by users are usually logged. Examination of the top search terms can identify content that users are having difficulty finding in the navigation or content that users expect on your site. Looking at the terms entered into search is often useful since it provides insight on the language preferred by site users.
Broken Links, Timeouts, and Other Errors
Broken links, timeouts, and other errors are basic problems that impact the usability of a site. These are included in most sets of web stats.