Chapter 47. Reviewing HTTP Referrers


HTTP is the protocol used by Web servers to transmit content to Web browsers, and used by Web browsers to transmit requests to Web servers. When you click on a link in your Web browser, the Web browser not only sends a request for the desired page, but it also sends the location where the link was located. This is called the referrer. For example, if you're on www.website.com and you click a link that points to www.mysite.com, the Web server at www.mysite.com is told that www.website.com was the referring Web site.

Working with referrers gives you a view of where users are coming from. For example, if Google shows up as a frequent referrer to your site, it's because you're showing up high in Google's search results, which is a great thing. PHP-Nuke allows you to view your refers through the HTTP Referrers icon on the Administration menu. The results, shown in Figure 47.1, aren't complex: It's just a listing of referrers. There's no aggregation, so if one Web site referred 100 users to you, it shows up 100 times.

Figure 47.1. Reviewing HTTP referrers.


Because PHP-Nuke doesn't do any kind of aggregation or statistics on referrers, you're really just going to be reviewing it to get a sense of where your users are coming from. If you're hosting your site with a Web hosting service, they may provide more detailed reports that include better statistics; if you're hosting your own server, you can purchase Web server log analyzers that will produce these statistics for you (two popular packages are Webtrends and Webalizer).

By the Way

You'll see referrers spelled referers almost everywhere in PHP-Nuke. Be patient. In the original specification for tracking referrers, the author spelled it referers (check out www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/HTRQ_Headers.html#z14), and the spelling stuck.


Why should you care about referrers? Let's say you agree to trade links with another Web site: You'll put a link to their site on your page, and they'll reciprocate with a link back to yours. If that other site never shows up in your referrers list, they may not have put the link up, or it may not be helping drive traffic to your site. On the other hand, if that other site shows up constantly in your referrers list, then that site is a good source of new users for your site. You might consider bargaining for a banner ad or something, which might attract even more attention.



    PHP-Nuke Garage
    PHP-Nuke Garage
    ISBN: 0131855166
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 235
    Authors: Don Jones

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