Web site statistic

Why web site logs are important?

Let's see. Visitors are coming, but you don't know from where and why, and where and why they are leaving your site.

There is gold inside web site logs, you only need to find a way to pull it out.

For the first time, use statistic tool provided from your hosting company. Information generated from those tools are, in most cases, enough for average webmaster.

But, not for you. If web site log is analyzed in details, there is more chance to boost your sales.

How? Let's analyze one visitor.
Unique IP (visitor) landed on one page "index.html", coming from Google search engine, using keyword "keyword". "index.html" page is positioned on the first page of search engine results for search term "keyword". After 2 minutes, visitor clicked on affiliate link of (some merchant) and left site. That affiliate link is positioned on right side of index.html page.

This story above can be pulled out from only two lines of web log.

Now, daily statistic for that affiliate link, we can test where is the best position to add some affiliate link. If you are using some kind of redirection script, calls are also recorded in site web log.

Example:
Total Hits: 300
Hits from page index.html : 170
From the right side: 120
From the left side 50
...

Adding dummy request parameter to script i.e. script.cgi?LinkID=1&p=RS , and analysing log for these requests, we know (p=RS means rightside) that better position for affiliate link is right side of that web page.
This example can be used for testing any other link.

With little programming knowledge, it is possible to pull out all kind of useful information and improve your site to get maximum profit.

Hits, referrals, keywords. You simply must know why some page is popular, and try to improve other pages. Daily "fast look" is necessary if you are optimizing sites for search engines. Sometimes, unusual keyword can pull lots of visitors to your site. That can last only for a few days, it is important to push related product as soon as possible to use that interest. So, watch your site logs like hawk.