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File Analysis and SEO
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 clïck
away from your site. Why is it useful to track
these? Because exit pages can tell you:
- 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.
- If your site design is breaking the strategic
pathway, for example, you may have links to
external sites that are inducing clients to
clïck away before buying your product or
signing up for your newsletter.
- 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
traffïc by targeting "printer cartridges"
but if you only carry 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 traffïc 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
traffïc 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
frëe submission and paid submissions), how
much traffïc 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 traffïc 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 traffïc 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 hostïng 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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