SOLO: A Linear Ordering Approach to Path Analysis of Web Site Traffic

Web usage mining analyzes web site traffic patterns in order to provide feedback on how they are being used. In this paper we present a new tool for web usage mining that is based on a linear ordering of the page transition matrix created from web server access logs. The ordering provides a measure allowing web pages to be categorized as origins, hubs or destinations according to their position in the ordering. It also provides a measure of the orderliness of web site traffic. This approach is applied to a university’s web site traffic over time and results are discussed. Comparing web site traffic immediately after a major change to the web site design and then two years later, the traffic is more ordered. Results from the linear ordering approach are also compared to a Markov steady‐state analysis of the page transition matrix. The mathematical formulation of the problem and the pseudocode used for its solution is presented and its application for bandwidth or size‐limited devices is presented.