How to view PLOW Website statistics (basic)

You will need your website admin login and a password. If you do not have this information, contact the SILO Help Desk.

1. Go to: http://www.cityname.lib.ia.us where cityname is the name of your city.
2. Click on the login asterisk
3. Enter the login name
4. Enter the password
5. Click on the Log in button
6. Click the Site Setup link
7. Click the Webstats link
8. Set the date range
• Date range can be set by clicking on the calendar icon in the Date Range box (left-hand column of the page)
• First, select the range, then, select the month/year, and finally, click a date to close the box
• Ex. By default when you log in you will see reporting for the current month. If, for example, you want to view the numbers for last month you would then click on the calendar icon in the date range box, make sure month is selected as the range, then you would change the drop down month menu to the last month, and finally, click on any day in that month to close the box.
9. The main stats for your site will automatically be displayed: visits, pageviews, and unique visitors (default stats are shown for the current month)
• You can also click on your library name to view different more in depth statistics.
• When looking at the more advanced statistics you likely want to focus on the Visitors and Actions tabs. However you can find other information like what browser your patrons are using from the Dashboard.

Monthly statistics are the most useful; daily statistics are not very useful. Use these statistics to track activity on your Web site over time. Number of Visits and Pages Viewed are the most valuable. Pay little or no attention to the other statistics.

The "visits" is the total number of times your Web site is visited. A visit is counted every time a browser opens your Web site. If you have the default view of the browsers on your public access computers set to your library's Web site, every time that computer is used for browsing the Internet, your Web site gets counted as having one visit.

A "unique visitor" is counted as one computer (or IP address) visiting your Web site. Your public access computers with the default view of the browser set to your library's Web page will each count as one unique visitor.

Use these statistics to track activity on your Web site over time.  Public Access Computers with the default view of the browser set to your library's Web page will skew the unique visitors and pages per visitor statistics. The only statistics that are useful to you for tracking activity over time are Visits and Pages Viewed.

If you need help please contact the SILO Help Desk
phone: 800-981-9131
Web form: http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/go/helpdesk
e-mail: helpdesk@silo.lib.ia.us