How to get the referer field working properly:

Using StatTrax tracking referer field can help you determine what pages or websites your hits are coming from - important when determining if your search engine registrations are doing what they are supposed to (sending people to your website!). It will also show who has links to your web pages.

The referer field works by using SSI or Server Side Includes. Not all servers will allow you to take advantage of SSI because of what they believe to be a security risk. The best way to determine if your server will allow use of SSI is to call your ISP administrator or tech support and ask.

If the answer is "yes", then your next question should be, "What extension does the page need to have to make them work?". Answers will vary according to the server software being used, and the permissions granted to the SSI.

If you can't ask your administrator, or don't like waiting on hold for an hour until they get to your call, you can run a simple test to find out if your ISP allows SSI use on web pages, and which extensions must be used to facilitate this.

SSI Test Pages

You will need to make four pages, with four different file names.

Using a text editor (to save time) simply create three pages that will contain the following:

     <html>
     <body>
        <p align=center>I came here from <!--#echo var="HTTP_REFERER"-->.
     </body>
     </html>

Now save 3 copies of that page with the following file names:

(You can use the same page, and do multiple "Save As" commands from the text editor.)

The fourth page will be your "link to" page - the page you will use to connect to your test files because you must be entering your SSI pages from another page for the SSI referer tracking to work. Your "link to" page will have four links on it each one linked to one of the 4 pages you just created. Call this page "ssilinks.html".

Now you will have to upload all four pages to your server, point your browser to your "ssilinks.html" page. Once you're there, you need to visit each one of your new links. Make a note of which pages you visit that have a URL AFTER the words "I came here from..." -- these are the pages with the only extensions that will work for your SSI commands.

Adding the tracking referer field to your tracking statement

Quick and easy way to get this done (leaving most of the tracking statement out of this for space concerns): 

     ...?account=4523&page=10&ref=<!--#echo var="HTTP_REFERER"-->">

REMEMBER! The Referer field will only work on pages with the extension(s) you established above!

If you've done everything correctly, and the statement has been placed on pages with the correct file extensions, you should see something like the following at the bottom of the tracking report for those pages:


Note: There is an hour delay before the Referers will show up on your reports.

Information provided by Patti A. Wells, Mirror Images Web Design