What are Log Files?
By Sowparnika Gopal
This article will take you through the basics of log files and give you an idea of the use of log files in web analytics.
What are log files?
Log file in simple words is a file that documents the actions of a web server. Almost every web server has a system that records the happenings in a website right from the time a person enters a website to the time he exits. The server can identify the pages, images and files requested, details of those who requested them and the number of bytes transferred.
This file lists the activities that have occurred on a site. The web server records every request made to the server. The activities are saved in the form of text documents that contain various records. These text documents are analyzed using some log file analysis tools. These tools help in finding details such as:
- Where are the visitors coming from?
- Which are the entry pages to these visitors?
- How much time did they spent on each page?
- Which search engine directed them to the site?
- What was the phrase used for the search?
- How did the visitor navigate through the site?
Enabling 'cookies' help webmasters to get even more detailed log information.
Different kinds of log files
There are different kinds of log files depending on the data they record:
- Error log file
- Event log file
- Data log file
1. Error log file
These are log files that get installed by default during installation. These log files cannot be disabled and records any error while the software is operating. The file is called error.pel. These log files record any errors that occur while processing requests and the diagnostic information. It is the first place to look for when a problem occurs with the server.
2. Event log file
An event log file records the event messages issued by programs and Windows XP. This contains information that can be helpful in troubleshooting problems related to programs.
3. Data log file
Data log file, which is an .upd file, keeps a record of the log files of data for use by the data history viewer. All the log files are available for download only for a certain number of days specified in the settings, after which they are automatically removed.
Log Analyzer
The raw data that is available form log downloads are text files containing various information on the activities of the visitors on the site. These raw data are fed into log analyzers, which simplify and create reports form the existing raw data.
Log Analyzers provide very important marketing and design data, such as referrer information, click trends information, access statistics, the visitor/host IP address, the search phrases, the search engines, the activity statistics and more.
There are different versions of tools available for web analytics. Free trials and downloads are available, which would give the basic details on analysis. At the same time, more complex tools are available and they give more vital information such as the revenue, conversion, marketing campaign performance, path followed by the visitors and more.
Thus, log files are the most vital element in web analytics.
What next?
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