About Accessing and Using Web site Statistics
PLOW Web sites use a program called Piwik Web Analytic to collect es precise visitor statistics over a period of time (day/week/month/year). It also counts visitor frequency by counting new visitors, regular (known) visitors, and how often visitors view the web site.
This program will be accessed through the library's Web site and will allow staff to manage web site statistics and provide some visitor analysis. All the statistics are presented in a clear and usable format. We recommend that libraries collect and report web site statistics on a monthly basis.
Web stats can be accessed through the Site Setup link (note you must be logged in as the admin user to see the site setup link). Once in the Site setup area you will see a Webstats link.
If you have questions or need help, please notify the SILO Help Desk:
by phone: 800-981-9131
by Web form: http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/go/helpdesk
by e-mail: helpdesk@silo.lib.ia.us
Additional Information on the Web statistics
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 everytime 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, everytime 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.
