Log Files

A log file is a file on the web server outlining all actions performed by a website visitor. The log file is one of the technological approaches used for collecting web analytics data, the other being page tagging.

When a browser requests for a specified web page or site from within your web browser, the request is sent to the web server. Once it receives the requests, the web server finds the corresponding web page from either a database or its file system. When the web server collects this page, it stores every request made to the server in the log file.

A log file keeps a record about the page or image requested by the visitor, pages the visitor viewed (including the flash objects, image files, text files), the page from which the visitor was referred, date and time of the request, the kind of browser and operating system used by the visitors, how the visitors crawl through a page, and so on. Moreover, log files stores these things in the form of status messages, transaction details, or as error messages. The contents in the log files are analyzed on a later date to track visitor activity.

Log files are mainly intended for web developers, website administrators, and programmers to view visitor activity and to clear up various potential problems that may occur within your website. More often, log files are used by marketers to track trends associated with the number of visitors of a page, number of views, page views, unique visits, time on site, traffic, form submissions, keyword phrases, transactional data, referrals, and the various related conversion rates for a specific time period.

The main advantages of log files are search engine spider reporting, server error code reporting, and information regarding download data. Log files have the ability to capture web server errors and page redirects.

To analyze the data, you can either take advantage of an outside service or log file analysis tool. Nowadays, a large number of web analytic companies are offering a log file analytics tool to keep track of the log files maintained by your web site.