| Permission is granted for the below article to | | | | Explorerversion 6. However, you will find a wide |
| forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, | | | | range ofoperating systems and browsers accessing |
| website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for | | | | you website. |
| sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, | | | | Unfortunately, they are not all compatible. |
| copyright, and theresource box below is included. | | | | The fact is, you can't design your website to be |
| There's Gold in Your Website's Server Log | | | | 100percent compatible with every operating system |
| By Stephen Bucaro | | | | and webbrowser in use today. That would require |
| Many Webmasters have never bothered to view | | | | either using onlyplain html (version 3) or using |
| their website'sserver log. Ignoring your server log is | | | | browser detection code andcreating a dozen |
| like flying with ablind pilot. You may still be cruising | | | | variations of each webpage. Use yourserver log's |
| along, but you haveno idea where you are or where | | | | platform and user agent data to decide |
| you're headed. If yourwebsite is on a free host, you | | | | whichbrowser your web pages should to be designed |
| probably don't have accessto the server log. | | | | to becompatible with. Your statistics will probably |
| However, if you pay for your web host,or if you | | | | show that |
| own the server, you almost always have | | | | 90 percent of your website's visitors are using the |
| someaccess to the server log. | | | | latestor the previous version of Internet Explorer. |
| In this article, you'll learn what kind of information | | | | Country Information |
| atypical server log provides, how to analyze | | | | Good server log analysis software will tell you |
| thatinformation, and how to use that information to | | | | whichcountries your website visitors are located in. |
| steer yourwebsite in a direction for growth and | | | | Analysis ofthe server logs shows that visitors |
| success. | | | | arelocated in every country, village, and hamlet on |
| The actual data in the server log is just that, data. | | | | theplanet. This leads to the question, should you |
| Datais of little use without an application to | | | | createmultiple variations of each webpage to |
| compile,categorize, analyze, and turn it into useful | | | | accomodate visitorsfrom other nations? It depends |
| information. | | | | upon your business and yourresources. The fact is |
| The power of server log analysis software varies | | | | that the language of business andcommerce across |
| dependingupon the web host, and it's not related to | | | | the planet is English, and I receivefrequent email, in |
| how much you payfor hosting service. I have seen | | | | English, from all over the planet. |
| some very low budget webhosts with powerful | | | | Important Ways to Use Server Log Information |
| server log analysis software, and someexpensive | | | | Website Design |
| web hosts that provide only a limited utility. | | | | Remember when the typical website had a gray |
| The importance of the server log analysis software | | | | backgroundand a single image in the middle of the |
| issecond only to up-time reliabilty when it comes to | | | | page? Today, thatwould be below the standard for a |
| webhosts. A web server log can tell you who is | | | | kids website on AOL. Doesyour server log "platform" |
| visiting yourweb site, where they're coming from, | | | | and "user agent" statistics tellyou that most of the |
| what operating systemand web browser they're | | | | visitors to your website are using |
| using, what pages of your websitethey are viewing, | | | | Windows XP with Internet Explorer Version 6, while |
| and much more. A smart webmaster performsa | | | | yourwebsite is designed for Windows 95 and |
| regular monthly analysis of the valuable | | | | Internet Explorer |
| informationcontained in the server log. | | | | Version 4? Can you afford to be presenting a |
| Hits | | | | website thatlooks outdated? |
| Some webmasters brag about the number of "hits" | | | | I think it's a mistake to design a website that |
| theirwebsite receives, but hits themselves are not | | | | requiresyour visitors to have the latest bleeding-edge |
| important. | | | | technology. |
| For example, when a search engine spiders your | | | | On the other hand, if the rest of the web is using |
| website, itgenerates a hit for every page it visits. | | | | ASP |
| There are waysto generate millions of hits on a | | | | (Active Server Pages) to generate custom |
| website without anyoneever actually viewing a single | | | | webpageson-the-fly that use CSS (Cascading Style |
| page. | | | | Sheets) to createwebpages that resemble slick |
| The important statistics are "page view hits" and | | | | magazine pages and DHTML |
| "uniquevisitors". Server log analysis software should | | | | (Dynamic HTML) to provide interactivity, it might be |
| tell you howmany times each page was viewed. | | | | timefor you to investigate those technologies. |
| Anaylyzing the popularityof individual pages tells you | | | | If your website is a business site or E-commerce |
| where to place your mostimportant advertisements, | | | | site, thevisual style and technical level of your |
| and what kind of new content youshould add to | | | | website reflectsthe quality of your business or |
| your website. | | | | service. To determine theproper visual style and |
| The king of all statistics is the number of unique | | | | technology level of your websiterequires you to |
| visitorsyour web site receives. When it comes to | | | | monitor three things. |
| sellingadvertising or joining the most exclusive | | | | 1. Your competitors. You want to look as in-style as |
| affiliateprograms, a high number of unique visitors | | | | theydo, but avoid following them down the road to |
| each month isthe statistic that gets respect. | | | | bloatedplugins (Macromedia Flash). |
| Good analysis software will tell you how many pages | | | | 2. The portion of your audience using broad band |
| eachvisitor viewed and how long they stayed on | | | | Internet |
| your website. | | | | Access. Less than half of U.S. Make sure your |
| The goal is to develop content that gets your | | | | webpagesload within 20 seconds over a 56kbps |
| visitors tostay longer, a quality sometimes referred | | | | modem connection. |
| to as | | | | 2. Your server log platform and user agent statistics. |
| "stickiness". | | | | Yourweb pages need to be designed to be |
| A statistic related to hits is "bandwidth". This is | | | | compatible with thecurrent most popular operating |
| acomplicated statistic because you want more | | | | system and web browserversion. |
| visitors andthat causes bandwidth to go up. On the | | | | Webhost Performance |
| other hand, highbandwidth consumption makes your | | | | Web hosts provide two basic kinds of service, |
| website repond slower | | | | sharedhosting and dedicated hosting. If your website |
| (and most web hosts charge extra for bandwidth | | | | is on ashared host, there may be hundreds of other |
| beyond acertain limit). What you want is to design | | | | websitessharing the same computer as your website. |
| your web pagesso they use bandwidth efficiently, | | | | This limits theperformance of your website. Many |
| and you want to be onthe lookout for people who | | | | web host providers use |
| are stealing your bandwidth | | | | "bandwidth throttling" to prevent one website from |
| (usually by linking to images on your web site). | | | | hoggingall the available bandwidth. |
| Referrers | | | | As your website grows and attracts increasing |
| Good server log analysis software will provide you | | | | traffic, itwill need more of the host computers |
| with the | | | | processor time andmore bandwidth. Monitor your |
| URLs of the webpages that people clicked on to get | | | | server log hits, and bandwidthstatistics. At some |
| to yourwebsite. This is extremely valuable | | | | point, your website may hit aperformance wall and |
| information. If youare receiving a high volume of | | | | you may need to move to a highergrade of hosting, |
| traffic from anotherwebsite, you can almost consider | | | | or a different web host company tocontinue growth. |
| that website to be yourbusiness partner. It would be | | | | When moving to a different web host company, |
| to your advantage to findways to make your | | | | don't trustthe specifications they provide. Check |
| website more useful to the referringwebsite. For | | | | several differentweb host directories that let visitors |
| example, learn what the topic of the referringwebsite | | | | rate web hosts. Ifseveral different web host |
| is and place more related content on your website. | | | | directories have many users thatgive a web host |
| One common method of aiding referrers is to place | | | | company a high rating, that's the companyyou want |
| areciprocal link on your website. However, don't | | | | to trust with your website. |
| botherplacing the reciprocal link on a "links" page with | | | | Website Topic |
| hundredsof other links (a link farm). If you can't | | | | As you analyze certain website server statistics |
| provide anhonest reciprocal link, it's better to do | | | | (forexample, "page view hits", and "top search |
| nothing. Anhonest reciprocal link might be a page | | | | enginekeywords") and make adjustments, you may |
| containing a reviewof the referrer's website, and that | | | | find the contentof your website drifting away from |
| page should containonly a few other links. | | | | your original intent. |
| Search Strings | | | | At some point, you may have to decide, Am I going |
| Good server log analysis software will provide you | | | | to chasetraffic and change the topic of my website, |
| with thekeywords and search strings people entered | | | | or am I moreinterested in focusing on the topic of |
| at a search siteto find your website. One way to get | | | | my choice? |
| more traffic to yourwebsite is to provide more | | | | If the original objective of your website was to |
| content related to the topkeywords. If getting more | | | | make moneyabove all else, then let your visitors |
| traffic is your single goal,there are websites that will | | | | steer your website'scontent. There's nothing wrong |
| provide you with a list of thecurrent most popular | | | | with that. Everybody's gotto make a living. But, if the |
| keywords entered into search engines. | | | | original objective of yourwebsite was to be a |
| Then you can provide more content related to those | | | | resource on a subject that you arepassionate about, |
| keywords. | | | | then you may need to reassess the contentof your |
| This gets involved with the subject of "Search Engine | | | | website. |
| Optimization" (SEO). | | | | I would reccommend having the best of both worlds. |
| SEO is a science in itself, covered in other articles, | | | | Stick tocontent related to the subject of your |
| but | | | | website, butdelineate a wide enough scope of the |
| I will reveal a secret trick as an example of SEO | | | | topic so that whenyour server statistics point out an |
| tactics. | | | | opportunity to increasetraffic, you have rules to |
| Starting with a top keyword, generate every | | | | guide you. |
| possiblemisspelling of that keyword and place those | | | | In this article you learned some of the types |
| at the top ofyour webpage with the text color the | | | | ofinformation you can mine from your web server |
| same as the webpagebackground. (Note: I don't use | | | | log and somepowerful ways to use that information |
| that trick or any other | | | | to steer your websitein a direction for growth and |
| SEO tricks myself because if you get caught the | | | | success. If you are one ofthose webmasters who |
| searchengines will penalize your website.) | | | | has never bothered to view theirwebsite's server log, |
| Platform and User Agent | | | | you now know that you have beenoverlooking some |
| Good server log analysis software will tell you | | | | gold nuggets. |
| whichoperating systems and which browser brands | | | | Resource Box: |
| and versionspeople are using to access your website. | | | | Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to |
| At the time ofthis writing, the most common | | | | maintainyour computer and use it more effectively to |
| operating system is Windows | | | | design a Website and make money on the Web visit |
| XP and the most common browser is Internet | | | | bucarotechelp. |