Webmasters have a valuable tool in determining who comes and goes from their site, the log files.
A regular web server log file line looks like this:
www.stmug.com 64.238.227.15 - - [05/Jul/2003:16:40:35 -0500] "GET /Meetings/Meetings.html HTTP/1.0" 200 584 "http://www.stmug.com/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624"
I can tell that for my web site someone from 64.238.227.15 wanted to look at the meetings page. That person had a Mac, and was using Mozilla version 5.
Now one line of a log file is not going to tell me very much, and a regular web site will have millions of lines in their log files. A log file Analyzer comes to the rescue.
There are many log file analyzers on the internet, the one I use is free and called Analog.
Here are some sample log files
If you look in the first log file there is a Search Query Report, and there is a search
how do i create a newsletter using an imac?
That's just the sort of person we want finding our StMUG website! But where did that person come from?
That's what the Referring Site Report is all about
43: http://www.stmug.com/
1: http://www.ask.com/
1 person found our website from ask.com.
Under the Browser Summary listing you will find:
1: 82: MSIE
2: 50: Netscape
3: 30: vb wininet
4: 18: Netscape (compatible)
5: 2: Scooter-3.2
I happen to know that Scooter is the web crawler that AltaVista uses. So now I know that Alta Vista is the only search engine checking out my website.
Now if you look at the second logfile for StMUG, you will find that under the Search Query Report
#reqs: search term
-----: -----------
1: is bill gates the antichrist?
1: bill gates not antichrist
1: antichrist bill gates
If I were to think of a who I wanted finding my website, I would hope that the number one search was not is bill gates the antichrist!
Looking at the Refering Site Report we find
#reqs: site
-----: ----
16: http://www.stmug.com/
1: http://www.ask.com/
1: http://askjeeves.com/
1: http://www.askjeeves.com/
This tells us that if I go to askjeeves.com, and type in the question, my website will be there somewere.
One Suzyferret.com the request report is:
#reqs: search term
-----: -----------
4: sonigram pictures
3: bathtime
2: ironchef
2: snowmobiling
1: naptime
1: bathtime family photos
1: diaper naptime
1: 'line of pearls'
1: anne gedes baby
So people looking for Sonigram pictures come up with our site every now and then.
--: -----: -------
1: 1141: MSIE
2: 269: Netscape
3: 16: Scooter
4: 12: Googlebot
5: 9: Netscape (compatible)
6: 3: FAST-WebCrawler
7: 2: ia_archiver
8: 2: SurveyBot
9: 1: vb wininet
10: 1: Windows-Media-Player
The Browser Report shows that not only does Altavista find out site, but google, and fast have found out website as well.
If your want to know how your site is doing overall, Alexa is a great resource!
All you have to do is go to alexa, type in something like Apple, and click on the Site Info button:
The day I wrote the review apple was 159.
Do you think they announced the new G5's sometime late in June?