What does "Top Paths Through Site" mean? Why is the number of visitors in this metric different than the "Most Popular Pages" number?

Avatar
  • updated
  • Answered
I am new to the this program and don't quite understand the nomenclature.

Simply put, I need to track page views on 100 pages and the total number of page views off those sub directories. Ideally, I'd export that report into Excel, each page one line with the number of page views listed and then the total number of page views for the sub directories?

Is this possible?
Avatar
Michael
You can create a custom table in Options > Report > Tables (it requires the Professional or Enterprise edition). Choose “File name” as main data on the second page when you create the table. Click the “Custom...” button to the right of the “Main data” field. Enable the “Use modification rules” option and enter rules for your file names, for example:

/t3/s*.intro.asp $= Category 1
/t3/s* $= Category 2

The only problem here is that one URL may match only one rule. I.e. if the URL will match the "Category 1" rule, it will be counted for it only even if it also matches the "Category 2" rule.

You can find information on using the modification rules at http://www.weblogexpert.com/help/wlex...

You also need to enable the "Show file names instead of URLs" option in the same window so names like "Category 1" without the domain will be shown in the table.
Avatar
Tony Loftis
So, I have this website: http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3_webinar...

And it has a 100 subpages like this one: http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s130613... (in the http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s*) format.

I need a spreadsheet that shows on one line:
1) How many visitors click on the http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s*.asp
2) How many visitors total click on the pages in the sub directories: http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s*.intr...

I would need one spreadsheet that shows all 100 directories so it's sortable.

Does that make sense?

As an added bonus, I need to change the URL to the presentation names. Is this doable?

Thanks.
Avatar
Michael
The paths report lists different paths, and the same page may be counted in different paths, so number of visitors in the pages and paths reports are different.

There are separate report on pages and directories available. You can export them to Excel by choosing the CSV report format in Profile Properties > Report. The program shows top 50 items per table by default but you can change this number (up to 10000) in the program options ("Report | Contents" category) or profile properties. Just select an appropriate item and click the "Properties" button.

It is also possible to list subfolders and pages for each subfolder, but in this case neither the total number of page views per subfolder nor totals overall will be shown. Please let me know if you need information on how to create such table.