[Anonymous]

Don't know why I'm putting these in "Google", but what the hey.
I'd like to get some imput on how analyzing user logs can help in website promotion and SEO.
I'll get my thoughts together and post them in a bit. In the meantime, thoughts?

[jeremy]

user logs? do you mean website statistics?

[Anonymous]

yep. That. 8)

[jeremy]

well. yes if you can learn something out of it it would be good. Having a couple of popular sites to compare results with would be useful.

I've finally started working through some of the logs of the websites I have built. Working out what search terms have ranked highly and what factors have affected it. Definitely a believer in having plenty of worded content on a homepage if possible, with lots of good keywords for search engines to pickup on.

I like the fact that web logs show the popular search terms, that and the number of "sites" and page views i think are the most useful items. However I am hardly an expert in that sort of thing, not even close. A topic area that requires more research.

[Anonymous]

Here are my ideas on the subject.
Webstats can be a great key to pointing you in the right direction when it comes to seeing the search phrases people actually use. If one search phrase is appearing on your logs, you might want to re-examine the keywords you target. For example, I sponsor the keyword "webmaster" on Google Adwords. So, even if somebody types in "webmaster forum", or "webmaster links", a sponsored listing for this site appears.
The search strings, however, contain a search string I never would have thought of targeting. It is the number 6 search string, and I never would have thought to target it. The search string webmaster forum is only the 5th. So, I'm currently preparing to change the meta description and place that key phrase on the page to better target that #6 key phrase. (Which I will not reveal. 8) )

[Greg]

you also do phpBB which is what I believe hooked me here. When I started my board I was just looking for some style sets and this came up when i put in phpBB, and i figured it might be a good source for me so i bookmarked it and came back later

[toni]

I've been diving into stats latley, and I believe they can be very valuable.

There is log analyzer called Sawmill, which produces very detailed reports. You can actually track visitors and see how they move through your site from start to finish.

By seeing a visitors path through my site, I can see if which pages work well, and which don't. You can also see which referers are giving you the most "buyers". Which is really good when it comes down to planning your advertising budget.

Take care,
Toni

[Anonymous]

By seeing a visitors path through my site, I can see if which pages work well, and which don't.

Very good point, Toni.
Also, notice the total visits vs. unique vists. Are people coming back? Or are the numbers the same? If the visitors aren't coming back, then I start thinking about sticky content.

And looking at the regional IP's, if any particular, English speaking region is not showing up, then I start thinking about how to better break into that market. (I have a lot of traffic from Australia, but the UK traffic is very low...)

8)

[toni]

Just curious,

Which webstats/log anaylzers are you guys using?

I have urchin, sawmill, analog, awstats, webalizer...and whatever the one is called that comes with ensim.

Im still trying to figure out which one I like best. I like the complexity of sawmill, but the speed on it is horrible. One of my hosts recently installed urchin, so I haven't had much experience with it...but it seems promising (and its nice to look at)

Take care,
Toni

[jeremy]

I've only ever bothered with webalizer, its free and has fairly decen detail, pre installed with hsphere.

[Anonymous]

webalizer & sometimes AWStats

[Mr. Tech]

I've used both. They seem to work well :wink: