Reading and Understanding your Website Log
Firstly - something I get asked from time to time - what is a website log?
A website log is like the captain's log of a ship, which records the comings and goings during journeys. In the case of a website, the website log records the visitors to the site - what pages they looked at, how many times, for what duration and where did they come from.
This is very rich information for those interested in using their website as a business tool. It is similar to stationing a person at the front of a retail store and asking customers the following questions on their way out:
a) How did you come across this shop - did anyone recommend it to you or did you find it yourself by searching for it? If you did search for it, what search did you use?
b) What items did you look at in the store, for how long did you look at them, and did you buy anything?
I think if most 'shopfront' retailers could have a detailed database of this information at their fingertips in easily summarised reports at the tip of their fingers, they would be overjoyed and immediately start designing their shop layout and product offering on hard empirical data rather than gut feel and time-lagged sales reports.
But website owners have this information already provided for them in the form of the website log - and that information is extraordinarily detailed.
But what is it?
Website logs vary in format slightly, but for the most part the computer on which the website is located tracks each and every request from a visitor, writing an entry for every action performed. This is done for performance analysis, fault finding, and for tracking the actions of visitors. The log files are usually written in a text format, with entries looking rather frightening and foreboding for the uninitiated.
Website Log Analysers
Luckily for those of use who don't really have the time or inclination to go through each log entry step by step (rather like reading the visitors book of a large country home open to the public looking for someone who lives in the same place as you), software called Log Analysers have been invented. These time-saving devices read through all the information and summarise it so that a regular human can understand it in just the right level of detail.
Common Information in Website Log Reports
The most common information found in Website Log Reports are:
- Page Popularity : which pages are the most popular on your site. This gives you an insight into what visitors to your site are actually looking for.
- Page Visit Patterns : Usually done by hour of day, day of week and other measures. This lets you know when visitors are accessing your site, and with a bit of creative thinking, you can figure out in what type of circumstance are they looking for the information (at home after the kids are in bed, or at work in their lunch hour, at work doing research on suppliers - each pattern is individual to each website, and only the website owner understands their customers better than anyone else.
- Referrals : Otherwise known as 'how did visitors find your site?'. Each time someone performs a search in a search engine, finds your site and follows the link to it, a record of the action is left in the website log. Log reports can show you where your traffic is originating (is it Google or Yahoo?) and what type of search terms people were using to find your site. This is invaluable information in the ongoing quest to better position your site in site engine search results, and insightful if you are thinking about purchasing paid advertising.
Website Log on iFinity Websites
The websites built by iFinity come with a standard set of Website Log reports. If you are an iFinity customer - you have a set of Website Log Reports waiting for your perusal on your website.
How do I get Website Log Reports?
If you have an iFinity supplied website, you need to log onto your website as the Administrator. Once you have done this, the website log reports are available in the Admin => Site Log menu option.
For a step-by-step guide, I have loaded a new document into the iFinity Knowledge Base. You must be logged into the iFinity website to gain access to the Knowledge Base.
If you are logged in, please follow this link.
If you are not currently logged in, do so by clicking on the login link in the top right hand corner using your iFinity Customer username and password (you should have had this provided to you when your website was setup). Once logged in, go to the Knowledge Base (it will appear as a menu option when you log in) and open and read the document 'KB00330 - How-To Read and Understand your Website Log'. This explains the whole process in greater detail.
If you don't have your username and password please get in contact with me and I will forward them onto you.
If you don't have an iFinity website (yet!?) you need to obtain access to your website log files (whoever is hosting your site should be able to provide these), then install a website log analyser, and import your log files. This will provide you with your information.
Next time I will cover some interesting information I have found about visitors to my site, and what I plan to do with this information.
In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment, or email me with any questions you'd like answered.