Webmaster Resources : Log Analysis

Summary : A log file outlines your site's traffic, navigation trends, referring sites, and useage statistics. If you aren't already monitoring your log file regularly, you aren't fully doing your job as webmaster.

A completed website listed in search engines, hosted on a reliable server, and ready for action is a great thing. It holds nothing but promise, and the potential for great E-Commerce success. I remember looking at the first version of AaronzWebWorkz.com with pride. Eventually, however, that pride turned to worry. Why? Because questions started to arise.

• Did we do something wrong that was turning customers away?
• How many people were viewing the site versus those buying something?
• What could we change to improve our sales?

I found that these questions, and more, can be answered by analyzing the log files kept by most web servers and hosts. Log files are an important webmaster resource that effects web marketing strategy, as well as web maintenance efforts. A log file outlines your site's traffic, navigation trends, referring sites, and useage statistics. You may or may not have access to these files, depending upon your host's setup. You can usually access them through FTP.

If you do not have access to your log files due to your current host's restrictions or setup, then you have the alternative of setting up a "free" tracking service. Be careful, though, as the statistics shown there can usually be viewed by anyone, and are not always in-depth or accurate. The other considerable drawback of these services is that they usually require the addition of a linked button or logo in return for the free service.

If you have access to your raw logs, you can use software to analyze these log files for you and supply a breakdown of statistics for the site. These programs are not always cheap. Generally, you get what you pay for. I have the advantage of having Aaron around to ask these sorts of questions to. He says he's tried several "free" or very inexpensive ones, and found them all to be lacking in some way or another. Having done that, he has found the software that does the job efficiently and very well. It's called "Open Web Scope" and can be found at : http://openwebscope.com/Default.asp?vid=258

As a quick run-down of what can be seen in your web logs and the power they provide, here are a few basic features of most web log analysis:

• "Unique Visitors"

  This is the number of visitors which have accessed the website each day, week, and/or month (depending on your software). This tells you how many visitors have accessed your site, but does not recount people who visited more than once during the time period measured. This is an important number and, by itself, is enough to set you on fire as you compare the number of visitors versus sales made. Most logs measure unique visitors per day by default.

   

• "Hits" & "Unique Hits"

  This term should not be confused with "Unique Visitors" (above). "Hits" are a measure of how often something has been accessed, regardless of who accessed it when. So, someone accessing your site several times a day will be counted each time they access each page of your site (a page could include fifteen or more images, all counted as hits!). "Unique Hits" records the same statistic, but only once per visitor, per time period (see "Unique Visitors" above). These numbers are nearly useless except as a basic measure of your site's activity. If you are worried about page loading times, however, this number can indicate on what pages file optimization may be needed to limit the number of "hits" per page (the more hits, the longer it takes for the page to load).

   

• "Referring Sites"

  This is also known as "Referral URLs" This is a great piece of web marketing information. Referring Sites statistics outline from where your traffic comes. Some logs give the last ten, while others track all of them. The best ones give you the top ten followed by a complete list. The top ten are, of course, of main interest because these are the sites or IP addresses (if they cannot be resolved to a website address) that refer to your site most often. Usually they will be search engines, affiliate sites, or reciprocated links. Referring sites daat, additionally, identifies which keywords are used to access your site. You need this information to plan or upgrade your web marketing strategy.

   

• "Errors Reported"

  This is another great tool for web site optimization. These errors are usually nondescript and mean nothing to you - especially server-type errors such as "Cached reload" or similar. However, if you notice a lot of "Page Not Found" or "404" errors listed, double-check your site's links as something may be wrong!

• "Days of the Week"

  This is another useful tidbit of information as it tells you when your site is accessed most often. It usually includes the time of day as well. This also tells you the best day for updates (the day before the most popular day, obviously) and the best day to include incentives or promotions on your site.    

The data found in your log files is an important webmaster resource. This information indicates your website's performance, allowing you to focus your web marketing efforts. In turn, the reporting enables you as webmaster to provide a better user experience and create a more successful E-Commerce site.