If you are looking for traffic log analysis software to read your log files you will need to know what to look for. Because there are various programs out there, and each one has different features, you need to know what the basic features are so you can choose the program that fits what you are looking the logs to achieve. Here are some things to look for:
• Number of requests made: This part of the log shows how many visitors actually came to your site in any given day. This is actually more accurate than hits because it tells you exactly how much content was viewable.
• Number of files downloaded: If you would like to know how many times your file was downloaded, a log file would contain this information. This will give you an idea as to how popular your file is, especially if it is a free download.
• HTML page requests: This is the section of the log sheet that shows how many page views were requested each day. This will tell you if your visitors go to other parts of the website other than one page. If you find one page gets more page requests than another, perhaps you should investigate and review that web page to see what may be a problem.
• Browser: This is good because it allows you to view what browser is the most used online. By knowing this you can configure your web pages to display correctly in that particular browser.
• Operating system: This is just like the browser above. It would be a good idea to know what the operating system is so when you develop products for your customers, those products will work well for the operating system they have.
• Referrer: This part would be very important to you because by knowing where your visitors are coming from (e.g. what search engine sent the traffic), will help you in your marketing efforts.