Scoobyphotos.com | Blog

Do you ever check your Server Logs? If you don't, you are missing out on a goldmine of information about the people visiting your site.

Some hosting companies provide the raw log files for you to import into your favourite log reading software, others provide online statistics software for you to use. I personally use deepmatrix statistics, which gives me a huge amount of information regarding the people that come to my site, including how long they stayed on the site, the entry point to the site, bad requests, bandwidth usage, browser statistics and most importantly in my view, where they were referred from.

Referral statistics a great for a number of reasons. Firstly, you can see which referrals have come from search engines, and the search terms that were used. Very important if you need to track and monitor your search engine ranking, and want to be able to see what keywords you are gettings hits for.

Secondly, referral statistics enable you to see which websites are linking back to you. I use this feature alot, as the site gets linked in a number of forums around the world, and I often want to sign up and introduce myself to those people viewing the relevant threads. This not only shows what a friendly kind of guy I am, but gives me an opening into introducing the site and its core values to a wider audience.

Sometimes I see referrals from sites which I never knew existed, which are potential partner sites due to their content. This again works in my favour and allows further promotion of scoobyphotos.com.

As well as referrals, server logs will give you a good indication of when your site has its busiest periods, what content is looked at most, and if the site is proving sticky to the majority of your visitors. If your stats indicate that the average visitor time is very short, it implies you are not attracting the right kind of visitor. If most of your traffic is coming from search engines, you would need to cross reference the search terms with th elength of time visiotrs stay on the site. It may be that you are getting ranked highly on keywords that mean something else in another part of the world, or the keywords aren't very well targeted for your content.

Its important that the server logs don't become a huge focus of your time, but spending some time accessing what the statistics mean may reap great rewards.