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Log File Analysis and SEO
By Kalena and Jerry Jordan (c) 2005 

If you own or manage a website, you are probably already aware
of the importance of your log files or site statistics. Such
data can give you insights about your site's usability, errors
in your HTML code, the popularity of your site pages and the
type of visitors your site attracts. But did you know it can
also highlight the success or failure of your search engine
optimization campaign?

There is specific data about your web site that you should be
looking at in your log files on a regular basis. Several
variables should be examined monthly or even weekly to ensure
your site design and page optimization is on the right track:

1. Entry Paths

Most sites can be developed and analysed around the concept of
visitor pathways. If, for example, your site is a Business to
Business (B2B) site and you service small, medium and large
businesses, there should be pathways through your site designed
for each class of visitor. An extremely simplified example
would be:

Clients coming to the site through an optimized home page:

home page ---> small business page ---> order page ---> order
confirmation page

home page ---> medium business page ---> order page ---> order
confirmation page

home page ---> large business page ---> order page ---> order
confirmation page

The site entry pages for these pathways are often optimized home
pages or optimized content pages. The final page of this route
is often the action that you want clients to take on your site
(e.g., sign up for your newsletter, buy your products  online
or contact you for further information). You can easily
determine how effective your pathways are by tracking the
entry paths on a regular basis via your site stats.

You should have some idea of the main pathways that clients take
through your site, both for monitoring the effectiveness of
your page optimization and conversions, and for the purpose of
subsequent site redesign(s). A good starting point to track
the pathways through your site is via the graph or chart called
"Entry Paths" in your log files / site statistics.

2. Top Exit Pages

These are pages from which most visitors click away from your
site. Why is it useful to track these? Because exit pages can
tell you:

a. If there is a technical problem with the page that is
causing visitors to leave your site. For example, if there are
broken links, or the form on the page is not working properly
etc.

b. If your site design is breaking the strategic pathway, for
example, you may have links to external sites that are inducing
clients to click away before buying your product or signing up
for your newsletter.

c. If there is something on these pages that is encouraging
visitors to leave your site. For example, an unprofessional
design or confusing layout.

In your log files / site statistics, the graph or chart called
"Top Exit Pages" is the place to learn why visitors are
leaving your site.

3. Single Access Pages

These are entry pages that are viewed once before the visitor
clicks away from your site. Similar to Top Exit Pages, Single
Access Pages can tell you a lot about why people are not
staying on your site for long.

Have a close look at the search terms used to find your site.
Single Access Pages can often indicate that your target search
terms are too broad. For example, you may be getting a lot of
traffic by targeting "printer cartridges" but if you only stock
a particular brand of cartridge, then people seeking other
brands are not going to find what they truly seek when they
arrive at your site so they will leave immediately. This can
be resolved by narrowing down your search terms to be more
targeted and focused on your niche products and services, for
example, by changing "printer cartridges" to "HP printer
cartridges" and so  on.

To see what pages of your site are viewed once, look for the
graph or chart called "Single Access Pages" in your log files /
site statistics.

4. Most Requested Page(s) and Top Entry Pages.

Tracking these pages is key to measuring the success of your
SEO campaign. If your optimization is effective, the Top Entry
Pages and Most Requested Pages should be those that you have
optimized for target keywords. The Top Entry Pages are
particularly relevant as you consider the pathways through your
site. Do the most popular entry pages have any relationship to
the start pages for your plotted visitor pathways? Or are
visitors entering and navigating your site via ways you didn't
intend? You can use this information to continually tweak your
page optimization to guide visitors to the right pathways.

To see your most requested pages, look for the graph or chart
titled "Most Requested Pages" in your log files / site
statistics. Also look for "Top Entry Pages".

5. Page Refreshes

Why are visitors refreshing pages on your site? Are the pages
not loading properly? The "Page Refreshes" variable is another
one to monitor on a monthly basis via your site stats to ensure
that there are not site usability issues for visitors.

6. Referring Domains and Referring URLs

Where are your visitors coming from? Are they coming from sites
that are linked to yours? Are blog authors or forum members
talking about your site? Referring Domains will tell you what
sites are linking to yours, while Referring URLs will list the
actual pages where the links are located. These can be little
gold mines because you can often find valuable sources of
traffic via links to your site that you didn't even know
existed.

In terms of an SEO campaign, these links can all add to your
site's overall link popularity, an important factor in the
ranking algorithms of many search engines, particularly Google.
Monitoring these metrics can tell you if your site requires a
link-building campaign or help you measure the effectiveness of
various online and offline advertising campaigns.

In your log files / site statistics, Look for the graph or chart
titled "Referring Domains" and "Referring URLs".

7. Search Engine Referrals

How many of your visitors are coming directly from search
engines? What percentage of overall traffic does this
represent? This is a good variable to track to help you keep
up with how many search engines are listing your site (both
free submission and paid submissions), how much traffic they
bring and whether to renew your paid submissions. It can also
tell you whether you need to increase the number of search
engines your site is submitted to in order to build on your
link popularity. As a very rough guide, you should be
receiving at least 30 percent of your site traffic via search
engine referrals.

To see search engine referrals, look for a chart or graph called
"Search Engines" within your site statistics.

8. Search Phrases

This topic is related to search engine referrals generally, but
gives added insight into what terms you were actually found
for in the search engines. Do these terms match what your site
was optimized for? Are there any surprising terms that you
might want to develop site content for? Some log file analysis
programs will even break down what specific phrases your site
was found for in which particular search engines. The more
detailed the data you have, the more closely you can tweak your
optimization campaign to your precise market.

To see the search phrases your site was found for, look for
"Search Phrases" or "Search Phrases by "Search Engine".

9. Landing pages for PCC Campaigns, etc.

If you run a pay-per-click campaign or dedicate specific pages
to advertising product specials, you may use special landing
pages or tracking ids to monitor your traffic and conversions.
Your site logs can help you track these by showing you how
many visitors they each had and what they did after they
visited those pages.

10. Metric values that show a radical change from developing
trends

Any site metrics that show a dramatic change from one month to
the next could pin-point a problem with your site or with your
optimization campaign. For example, if your search engine
referrals have dropped dramatically, it could indicate that you
have been penalized in a search engine (or more than one).
Noticing changing trends early gives you the chance to
investigate problem areas and make adjustments if necessary.

Please note that all log file analysis and site statistics
programs are different and use slightly different terms to
describe the metrics listed above. If you're confused, ask your
site admin or hosting provider to highlight these for you.
Remember, your log files are gold mines filled with nuggets of
information about your optimized web site. If you keep digging
on a regular basis, you'll eventually strike it rich with
success.

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Article by Kalena and Jerry Jordan. As well as running their own
SEO business Web Rank (www.webrank.biz), Kalena and Jerry
Jordan manage Search Engine College
(www.searchenginecollege.com), an online training institution
offering instructor-led  short courses and downloadable
self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search
Engine Marketing subjects.

Copyright © 2005 by Kalena and Jerry Jordan. All rights reserved
under U.S. and international law.
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