Help and User Support

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Problems and errors

1. The geographic location (city, state) stats are a bit off
   
   
2. Web-Stat is reporting less visitors than the stats supplied by my host
   
   
3. Google Adwords (or another pay-per-click engine) is reporting more referrals than Web-Stat
   
   
4. Web-Stat is reporting less visitors than my other web counter
   
   
5. Referrer and keyword tracking is not working properly
   
   
6. The stats are stuck and have not updated in several days
   
   
7. The timestamp of my visitors is off
   
   
8. The counter does not increase when I reload my web page
   
   
9. The counter increase every time I reload my page. How can I have it track only unique visitors ?
   
   
10. When I go to my site my visit does not appear in the stats
    
    
11. I have excluded my own visit but the setting does not 'hold'
    
    
12. My stats seem to be publicly available : how do I prevent that ?
    
    
13. Why do you have traffic limits ? What happens if I go over ?
    
    

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1. The geographic location (city, state) stats are a bit off

   When we show you the geographic location of a visitor what we are actually measuring is the location from where the visitor's Internet Service Provider (ISP) issued a connection request to your web site. Usually the ISP servers are near the visitor's physical location, but sometimes the distance can be of a few miles.

   In some cases (AOL or Compuserve for instance) the ISP will re-route the connection requests through its private network, so that they will emerge far away from the actual visitor's location. These cases are not very common but they do happen.

   These limitations are shared by all stats suppliers out there. As of today Web-Stat is using the most precise localization tool available and as far as we know you can not get more precise data anywhere else.

   
   

2. Web-Stat is reporting less visitors than the stats supplied by my host

   The stats supplied by your host are derived from an analysis of the host's server log files. Discrepancies between server logs and Web-Stat results are a common occurrence ; here are the main reasons why:

   • You may have forgotten to install the Web-Stat code on a page that people use to enter your site (you can find out easily by comparing Web-Stat's entrance pages report with the equivalent report in your host's stats)

   • If someone loads an image (or any non-HTML file) from your site without loading a web page, then the server logs will count a visit and we will not (we consider that this is not a real visitor).

   • If a robot, spider, or any automated process loads your page, your server logs will show a visit. Web-Stat correctly filters out all artificial traffic and only shows 'real' visitors.

   • Web-Stat will only count one 'visit' if the same person comes back to your site within less than 30 minutes ; you need to check what your host is counting exactly. If they have a different definition of a visit they will show different results (or they may be counting 'hits' or 'page views' which are entirely different from what we measure).

   • Server log reports separate visitors by looking at their IPs ; more and more with cable modems, people use firewalls that change their IP at each HTTP request, so everytime one of these visitors request a document from your site, the server logs will see a different IP and count a new visit. Web-Stat will correctly identify these requests as part as a single visit (we rely on cookies and use IP as a backup only). That causes large discrepancies.

   Please note that Web-Stat has been running stats on people's sites since 1998. During all these years we have had many people challenge our results and each time we did an in-depth invertigation. We have found a satisfactory explanation in every case (either Web-Stat was not properly installed or Web-Stat and the other stats program were not measuring the same thing). In other words we are fairly confident with our own data since it has proven to be correct during many years over tens of thousands of sites.

   
   

3. Google Adwords (or another pay-per-click engine) is reporting more referrals than Web-Stat

   The usual reasons for a difference between our stats and the stats supplied by Pay-per-click search engines (such as Adwords, Overture or Findwhat) are:

   • Web-Stat will not count the same visitor more than once in a 30 minutes interval. Some pay-per-click engines can count multiple clicks by the same visitor in an equivalent time period.

   • Pay-per-click engines measure clicks towards your site ; we measure the fact that your page was actually loaded into someone's browser. If someone clicks on a search engine link then goes back immediately, which happens often, then you get a 'click' counted by the engine, but no visit on the Web-Stat side because your site was not actually 'loaded' in the visitor's browser.

   • Are you directing your pay-per-click visitors to the proper URL ? It is important that you instruct the pay-per-click engines to send your traffic to:

     http://www.yoursite.com?source=some_engine

     instead of simply to:

     http://www.yoursite.com

     ... per the instructions in the referrer tracking tutorial

   
   

4. Web-Stat is reporting less visitors than my other web counter

   This is another common question ; remember that just because another counter shows more visits does not mean that Web-Stat is misbehaving, actually it could be just the opposite. Here are a few things to look for:

   • Check that the Web-Stat code is properly installed on your site How can I test that the code is properly installed ?

   • you may have forgotten to install Web-Stat on a page that people use to enter your site : if your other counter is installed on that page and not Web-Stat we can not 'see' the visitor

   • Web-Stat will only count one 'visit' for a given visitor in a 30 minutes period (this is a very desirable feature ; after all if someone comes to your site and reloads your page 5 times you want us to count 1 visit, not 5). Most likely your other counter does not have that feature (few do) and counts a new 'visit' every time a single visitor loads one of your pages.

   • If the stats are supplied by your host, they are probably derived from your server logs, in which case the section above would apply

   Please note that Web-Stat has been running stats on people's sites since 1998. During all these years we have had many people challenge our results and each time we did an in-depth invertigation. We have found a satisfactory explanation in every case (either Web-Stat was not properly installed or Web-Stat and the other stats program were not measuring the same thing). In other words we are fairly confident with our own data since it has proven to be correct during many years over tens of thousands of sites.

   
   

5. Referrer and keyword tracking is not working properly

   There are two possible cases:

   1. Referrers are never detected by Web-Stat (every referral appears as 'Unable to detect referrer' or as 'Direct Access'. In this case there are four possibilities:

      • First, it is possible that there are no referrers to your site. Has your URL been submitted to the search engines ? Are people linking to your site ? If not, then there are no referrals for Web-Stat to detect and the results are normal.

      • If you are certain that there are indeed referrals to your site and if they are never detected by Web-Stat, verify that the Web-Stat code is installed on your site's entrance page. For instance if people access your site at www.yoursite.com/index.html and get automatically redirected to www.yoursite.com/main.html, the true entrance page is index.html, not main.html, so the Web-Stat code must be installed on index.html

      • If referrers are still not detected, you may have installed the simplified version of the code, which is not capable of referrer detection. Instead, you need to install the full version of the code available here

      • If you are using the full version of the code and you still don't get any referrers, then the code may not be properly installed. Please check your installation as follows:

        Load your web site from Internet and display your site's source code (right-click anywhere on a text portion of your site and select 'views source' from the menu that will appear at the cursor's location). Locate the Web-Stat code in your source HTML and verify that it is strictly identical to the code we issued (in particular your code should contain the same number of lines as the original code - sometimes HTML editors insert unwanted line breaks, which prevent traffic monitoring from working properly). The original code for your account is available here

   2. Referrers are usually detected but not always, in particular some referrers seem to be absent or under-reported.

      This is caused by the fact that some of your referrers use non-standard links to your site (for instance server redirects instead of HTTP links). In such cases Web-Stat can not detect the referrer automatically, however there are ways to easily get around this problem. Please see our Referrer Tracking Tutorial for more information on tracking non-standard referrals.

   
   

6. The stats are stuck and have not updated in several days

   This is a very common question and the answer is always the same : you have removed or modified the Web-Stat code from your page (probably by error during a site update) That will prevent our program from working and causes your traffic monitoring to stop.

   Please check your installation by loading your web site from Internet and displaying your site's source code (right-click anywhere on a text portion of your site and select 'views source' from the menu that will appear at the cursor's location). Locate the Web-Stat code in your source HTML and verify that it is strictly identical to the code we issued.

   Click here to get a copy of the original Web-Stat code for your account along with installation instructions.

   Note : if your site gets very low traffic, it is possible for the stats to appear to be behind by a day or more : the reason is that the Web-Stat reports update every time a visitor accesses your site ; if you have no visitors in over 24 hours, then your stats will appear as they were 24 hours ago. They will update automatically as soon as your site receives a visit.

   
   

7. The timestamp of my visitors is off

   When you create an account we attempt to automatically detect your time zone and apply it to your stats. Nevertheless, if you notice that the time stamp for your visitors is incorrect simply adjust your time zone from the Web-Stat Control Panel.

   Note that updating the time zone does not affect the timestamp on previously recorded visits. Only future visits will use the new setting.

   
   

8. The counter does not increase when I reload my web page

   In normal operations, the counter will only increment once for a given visitor in a 30 minutes period (this is a very desirable feature ; after all if someone comes to your site and reloads your page 5 times you want us to count 1 visit, not 5).

   To test your account you can force the counter to increment by one every time a monitored page is loaded : simply go to the Web-Stat Control Panel, click on 'Configure', select 'Test Mode > Yes' and submit.

   
   

9. The counter increase every time I reload my page. How can I have it track only unique visitors ?

   Your account is set to 'Test Mode > Yes' in the Web-Stat Control Panel, which means that the counter will increment by one and we will count a new visit every time the Web-Stat code is loaded. This is useful only to verify that your account is working properly after installation. The account should not remain in test mode and you should choose 'Test Mode > No' for normal operation.

   
   

10. When I go to my site my visit does not appear in the stats

    First, check that you have not excluded your own visits from being counted (go to the Web-Stat Control Panel and look at the 'Exclude my own Visits' section : the setting should be at 'No'. If it is at 'Yes' change it by selecting 'No' and submitting, then try going to your site again.

    If your own visits are still not being counted, your account is probably set to 'Test Mode > No' in the Web-Stat Control Panel, which means that it will only count one 'visit' for a given visitor in a 30 minutes period (this is a very desirable feature ; after all if someone comes to your site and reloads your page 5 times you want us to count 1 visit, not 5). Your visit was counted when you originally accessed your site but your return visits are being ignored because they are part of the same 30-minute session

    To test your account you can:

    • set it up so that it increments every time you reload your page : simply go to the Web-Stat Control Panel, click on 'Configure', select 'Test Mode > Yes' and submit.

    • close your browser, wait at least 30 minutes (make it 45 to be safe), then go back to your site : your visit will be counted as a new session.

    
    

11. I have excluded my own visit but the setting does not 'hold'

    You can have Web-Stat ignore your own visits to your site by selecting 'Exclude my own visits > Yes' in the Web-Stat Control Panel. When you select this option we write a cookie on your hard disk that allows us to recognize your browser when you come to your site and load your counter. If that cookie gets erased for any reason we are unable to recognize your browser anymore and your visits get counted again.

    To prevent this from happening make sure that your cookies files don't get erased. Specifically, this will occur if you remove them yourself or if you run a program that erases them for you at regular intervals (some disk cleaning, anti-virus, security, or privacy programs can remove the cookies from your hard drive if improperly configured).

    
    

12. My stats seem to be publicly available : how do I prevent that ?

    Your stats can be set to either 'Public' or 'Private' in the Web-Stat Control Panel. If you choose the 'public' setting, anyone can access your data, including the search engine spiders which may index them.

    To make your stats results private simply go to the Control Panel, click on 'Configure', select 'Private' in the 'Public/Private stats' section and submit. Your results will immediately become hidden to the public and will have to be accessed from our password-protected 'check stats' interface.

    Note that you may still be able to check your stats without a password from your own computer : that's because your browser 'remembers' your login information (if you have clicked on the 'remember me' checkbox during a log in). Anyone using a computer other than yours will not have that access.

    
    

13. Why do you have traffic limits ? What happens if I go over ?

    In order to provide reliable service we need to put a limit on the resources made available to each account. For that reason, the number of page views that can be recorded by a single account each month is capped. Most of our accounts come with a default limit of 100,000 page views per day (this is a very high limit, much higher than what's available anywhere else in this business).

    If your account ever goes over that limit it will get temporarily suspended and you will receive a warning email. You will then have two options:

    • Wait until the end of the month and traffic analysis will resume automatically (no new data will be recorded while the account is suspended).

    • Upgrade your account to a higher traffic limit (from the Control Panel)