Please see the Urchin Help Center for more detailed information on how to use Urchin 6.

There are 2 levels of tracking with Urchin Web Statistics.

Basic Tracking

Basic Tracking, which requires no additional configuration, uses the IP address and user-agent (browser) information to determine unique sessions. A configurable thirty-minute timeout is used to identify the beginning of a new session for a visitor. While this method is still susceptible to proxying and caching, the addition of the user-agent information can help detect multiple users from one IP address. In addition, this method includes a special AOL filter, which attempts to reduce the impact of their round-robin proxying techniques. This method does not require any additional configuration.

Advanced Tracking

The patent-pending Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM) was specifically designed to provide the most accurate measurements of unique website visitors. For businesses looking to get a deeper understanding of their online visitor behavior, the UTM is an extremely valuable technology that combines the best of client and server side information while letting you control the data. Easy to install, this technology allows business owners to exactly identify unique visitors, click paths, and return loyalty metrics including: first time visitors, returning visitors, and frequency of use. The second version of UTM, UTM-2, released with Urchin 5, expands these capabilities, capturing additional browser parameters and loyalty metrics.

• Identifies non-proxied sessions
• Identifies some proxied sessions
• Defeats session IP proxying
• Defeats most provider caching
• Defeats browser caching
• Captures more detailed path sequences
• Captures visitor loyalty metrics
• Captures browser capabilities

There are two components to the Urchin Traffic Monitor System: the UTM Sensor, which is a lightweight module installed into the content of the website; and the UTM Engine which is part of the log processing Urchin Engine. The UTM Sensor enables client-side data collection, which is then funneled back through the web server augmenting the normal logfile. The client-side information is combined with the existing server-side data by the UTM Engine to provide a more accurate and complete picture of website activity.

If you choose to use the Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) you will need to insert the Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) JavaScript file in to each one of your pages that you wish to track. This can be done manually or automatically via server side includes and other template systems. You'll need to notify us so we can turn on UTM tracking for your Urchin report.

The Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) is a simple JavaScript file that must be installed on your site.

Download these files: urchin.js and __utm.gif.

You will need to call the UTM JavaScript file by using a simple JavaScript include tag (assuming that you install the file into a /urchin directory on your site):

<script src="/urchin/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
        urchinTracker();
</script>

For more information, see the Urchin UTM help page.

IMPORTANT NOTE: make sure that the path to the __utm.gif file patches what is in the urchin.js file. By default, __utm.gif is assumed to be in your root folder.