Can't tell who's new, and who's not...

My logs and Webtrends don't seem to get along!

[SEO Speedster]

Hello,

I have a site, running on an NT server, with WebTrends as my main source of stats and information.

In the past year though, I haven't been able to tell who is new and who is returning - for some reason, everyone is a new visitor according to the stats.

Is there a way to setup webtrends to help me out with that stuff? FYI - I'm using the W3C Standard form of logging visits, and i'm not too sure of the version of webtrends that i am using. Anyone else have this issue?

Resolutions?

Thanks,
~Speedster

[gutabo]

I'm not an expert, and I had (still have) plenty of issues with webtrends.
You can configure it to set cookies to know who is a new user and who came back(now with AOL changing the IP addresses by the minute it is an option), otherwise if you don't keep a log of the IPs or a db or something like that, I think(from my ignorant point of view) there is no way to know who is new and who is not.
Hope it helps...(BTW, please read my previous topics, maybe you can help me)

Gustavo

[rogerd]

Cookies are the way to go, as IPs are getting less reliable even for tracking a single visit, much less a return visit. I'm not a WebTrends user, but I know it has a cookie feature. If you get WT through your web host, ask them about it.

If for some reason the WT cookie feature can't be used, you can always incorporate your own cookie and return visit logging system. It won't integrate with the WT reports, but you'll know how many repeat visitors you have, and how many times they have returned.

Of course, there are still people who don't accept cookies or delete them frequently. Like me. :) Users with multiple computers will also fool simple cookie systems. Short of a forced user login, which would be death for traffic, there's not much you can do about these conditions.