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Updated: 01/28/2020
( 12 minutes reading )
Information is the world's most vital resource, which everyone aims to obtain, as it gives you an edge over your competitors; it gives you data with which to work and lets you make decisions based on that data, which you can translate into devices of any sort. Now imagine having access to such information about your website from the convenience of your cPanel account. The "Awstats" functionality allows you to receive different information about the visitors to your website.
Unlike other information sources, the data will not be structured, meaning that you will have to spend hours digging into the logged visits in order to retrieve what you need. For these and many other structured insights, cPanel provides the easy-to-use "Awstats" feature, which we will thoroughly review in the following lines of this tutorial.
Without further ado, let us get started!
To access any of the features of the cPanel control panel, you must first access the cPanel. If you are not sure how to do that, please follow our tutorial on accessing the cPanel service.
Once logged in, you will be directed to the main page of the control panel, which contains a complete list of all the features it offers. To access the "Awstats" feature, you will need to either use the search functionality located at the top of the page or you can look for the "Metrics" features group where the "Awstats" feature is located.
Clicking on the feature will redirect you to a brand new page, which will contain a table section that includes a list of all your websites added to the cPanel service.
Now, please point your attention to the last column of the table section, which is labeled "Actions". Underneath, you will find the "View" link corresponding to each of the domains on the server.
To review information about your visitors for the domain of your choosing, please click the link relating to the domain you want to check out.
Upon clicking on the "View" link, you will be redirected to the core of the Awstats functionality and all it has to offer in terms of access information for your website.
The page will be divided into two columns. The left column will be used to navigate through the different types of statistics, while the right column will actually represent the information for each type. We can refer to it as the "Data section". Since the left column is only for navigational purposes, we will focus on the right one since we will review the provided statistics one by one.
To begin, at the top of the page, you should see a section where you can select the period for which you would like to review statistics. Please note that Awstats support only a monthly period so you will need to correctly choose the month you would like to review. By default, the chosen month will always be the current one.
Once you choose the correct month, please click on the "OK" button so the statistics can be loaded appropriately. Now, let's review the rest of the provided statistics one by one.
The first important statistic is Summary, and as the name suggests, it gives a brief summary of the statistics displayed below.
The summary begins with the "Reported period" row of data, which should match the selected month. Next, you will find a simple table with two rows of data. The rows are called:
Next, you will be presented with 5 columns of data:
Under this section, you will be presented with a graphic and a table representing the statistics for your website based on the months it has been active.
Please note that each year the graphic will refresh, showing the results from the first month on. In the table, you will find the very same statistics as in the "Summary" section which we have previously reviewed.
In this section, you will find once again a graphic representing the access on your website for every single day of the chosen month. Below the graphic, you will be provided with a table as well so you can better understand the statistics.
In a similar fashion are presented the next sections for the "Days of week" and the "Hours". These sections will give you access information based on the average access rate for the different days of the week and also for the different hours of the day.
In this section, you will find a list of the countries from which the visitors have accessed your website. Once again you will be provided with statistics like "Pages", "Hits", "Bandwidth".
In this section, you will find a table containing a list of IP addresses that accessed your website. For each one of those, you will be able to review the "Pages", "Hits" and generated "Bandwidth" as well as the time of their last visit.
In this section, you will receive information for visitors that have accessed password-protected directories on your Web Hosting Account.
In this section, Awstats will list all the robots/spiders/bots that accessed your website over the past month. You will be able to see how much "Hits" and "Bandwidth" they have generated as well as the time of their last visit. This section is particularly useful when you are trying to identify the robots accessing your website in order to deny any malicious ones.
Here you will find information on your website for the duration of the visits. What better way of knowing how much time your visitors spent on your website.
In this section, Awstats will show you what types of files are commonly accessed on your websites. In addition to that, you will be able to see the percentage of bandwidth generated from the type of file.
In this section, you will find information about the downloaded files on your website.
The top 25 URLs accessed on your website. By using this section you will be able to see what are the most accessed URLs.
In this section, you will find a list of the Top 10 operating systems used by the visitors of your websites.
Here, you will find a list of the Top 10 browsers used by the visitors of your website.
In this list, you will see the locations from which the user connected to your website came.
Any other statistics that cannot be categorized into separate groups.
The status code returned by your website to the visitors. Here you will be able to see if any unexpected errors were returned.
As you can see Awstats provides you with quite a lot of useful information for you to consider. Being aware of what information is included in the report is critical not only to maintain a healthy website but also to better know your visitors, their habits, and how your website pages are performing.
Nikola is an accomplished tech-savvy extraordinaire with over six years of experience in the web hosting field. He started as a customer care representative and quickly rose the ranks to become a support supervisor and, eventually - the head of the technical department in HostArmada. His deep understanding of the client's needs, combined with his technical knowledge, makes him the perfect man to create the ideal harmony between client satisfaction and professional problem-solving. You will often find him creating helpful tutorials, articles, and blog posts that help existing customers get around.
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