The Value Of Website Traffic Referrer Logs

Referrer logging is applied to let web servers and web sites to identify where people are visiting them either for marketing or safety measures purposes. You can understand which search engine they used to locate your site and whether your client has come from a ‘linked site’. It is basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.

By default, most hosting accounts don’t include referrer logs but may be subscribed for an additional monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your website by logging into the host server making use of free or low-cost FTP program, like these:

FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/ LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/ FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/

The log file is available on your web server which can be downloaded into your pc later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to understand.

Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/ Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/ Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net

You’re able to view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if you do not have the proper tool. This information is very crucial to your company and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.

In addition to identifying the search engine or linked site from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client utilized for searching.

As referrer info can occasionally violate privacy, some browsers permit the user to disable the sending of referrer information. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer information, to avoid leaking the location of private web sites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their website to browsers that don’t send the correct referrer info, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software gives the top-level address of the target website itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user’s last visited website.

Since the referrer can very easily be spoofed or faked, nevertheless, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.

Vince Chng is an ordinary guy that making an average $40k per month online. He specializes in driving a massive targeted traffic to any website. To learn more about the simple traffic generating strategies, download his limited FREE giveaway copy of “750 Tips on Traffic Tactics” eBook Package value at $97. www.WebTrafficTactics.net