Online behavior of people visiting a scientific website on epilepsy

Abstract

We investigated the online behavior of Internet users consulting the website of the Italian Chapter of the International League Against Epilepsy (Lega Italiana Contro l'Epilessia [LICE]). We obtained the visualization statistics of the LICE website using AWStats (https://awstats.sourceforge.io/) and Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/), and compared the statistics of years 2010, 2014, and 2017. The following variables were analyzed: number of unique visitors and visits, visit duration, the day of week and rush hours, most downloaded documents, most viewed pages, keyphrases and keywords used for online searches, origins of searches, and geographic trends of Google searches related to the LICE. The total numbers of unique visitors, visits and page views remained quite stable over time. Most visits (70 to 76.7%) lasted less than 30 s. The most frequent keyphrases and keywords used for online searches were related to clinical guidelines and driving license. Among the most frequently downloaded documents were general guides on epilepsy. The pages with the list of epilepsy centers endorsed by the LICE and those with the list of LICE guidelines were among those most frequently viewed, together with educational videos. Most users directly accessed the website without being referred from external links. No information on geographic origin of Google searches was available. The visualization statistics suggested two distinct populations of visitors. The first one is likely represented by physicians who seek specialist information on diagnosis and management of epilepsy, including guidelines. The second population is represented by lay people who seek accessible and easily comprehensible information to better understand epilepsy and know which centers are best for its management.