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Web Server Log Analysis

The first place to start enhancing Web site traffic is with the server logs that track each person who visits your Web site.

Most Web marketers start by asking the question "How many people saw my pages?" and then progress to more in-depth questions. Many of these questions can be answered by tabulating the data found in the log files that are constantly being updated by your Web server software.

We can answer many of the questions asked by Web marketers:

  • What type of data is stored in the log files?
  • How can it be tabulated?
  • Can I make graphs of the data?
  • What can I learn from the Web log analysis?
  • What products are available to create log analysis reports?
  • Will the log tell me exactly who is coming to my Web site?
  • Can I get a profile of the individuals coming to my Web site?

    As you can see, there are many questions that can be answered about Web site activity from the log files that can help you tailor your Web content to the individuals in your target audience.

    Definitions

    In order for to make the most sense from Web server traffic analysis reports, we need to define the terms used in dealing with Web server logs:

    Hit. A ìhitî is generally thought of as accessing any file on your Web site, including the HTML files, graphics files, and any other material you provide. For example, if your homepage has nine different graphic images, then viewing your homepage results in 10 ìhitsî to your site. Because of the potential misuse of this measurement, many Web managers prefer to measure other activities.

    Page view. A ìpage viewî is just what it says: The viewing of a single Web page. This is generally the number of HTML pages that have been served and it excludes the number of graphic images served.

    Visits. A ìvisitî is also called a ìsessionî because it represents all of the material an individual Web visitor sees during one visit. Since standard Web logs include the IP address for each computer coming to your site, it is easy for the analysis programs to count the number of visits by counting the number of different IP addresses in the log. Of course, inaccuracies can creep in because an ISP can give an IP address to a second person later in the day, and that second person would be seen as continuing the first personís visit.

    Visitors. A "visitor" should be the number of unique people who came to your site. In other words, it should be a nonduplicated count of visits. Of course, it may be hard for a log analysis program to determine that someone with a different IP address is the same person who visited your site the day before. The use of cookies to identify when a particular computer returns to your site can help improve the accuracy in counting visitors. Some inaccuracy can creep into these numbers, too, because different people can use the same computer to visit the same Web site. Normally this is not a problem, but as families start visiting the same Web site (parents looking for guidance, students looking for homework help, kids looking for games), you could soon face the problem of identifying different people using the same computer-which some of the newer Web browsers handle.

    Organizations. The number of different ìorganizationsî coming to your Web site is based on the domain name used by visitors. Of course, with so many people using dial-up services, this measurement may not be as useful as you would like. For instance, the millions of people using America Online are all seen as coming from the same organization.


    After determining the number of unique sessions from the logs, the next information we're interested in determining includes:

  • The number of accesses to the homepage.
  • The number of times a graphic unique to the home page is accessed. This indicates how many people came to the site with graphics turned on.
  • The number of times the intermediate index pages were accessed from the homepage, which shows the interest areas of people. For example, if you believe that a certain link should be popular but it is not accessed often, check to see if the link is visible when the homepage is initially displayed or if the user has to scroll down to find it. If it's low on the page, try moving it up and watch the log to see if it makes a difference.
  • The order pages are accessed by individual IP addresses. This shows the "train of thought" people are going through in visiting your site.
  • The time spent on each individual page, which can be calculated for individual IP addresses.

    How We Can Help

    Allen Interactive uses advanced log analysis software to produce custom reports based on your Web server log files. Not only are these reports helpful for you in knowing what people are doing, we use the data to recommend specific enhancements to your site based on the actions and buying motives of your Web audience.

    During this phase we work with your Webmaster or system administrator to obtain secure access to your log files for processing. In most cases we don't need to copy your logs to our server, but occasionally system administrators prefer that we process files on our server.

    If you'd like to know who's doing what on your Web, be sure to check "Web Server Log Analysis" when you request your free traffic enhancement analysis.

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