Improve Your Web Site's Marketing Effectiveness with Log Files

by Dan Janal

Rita Risser, a lawyer who is the Dear Abby of workplace legal questions on the 'Net (www.fairmeaures.com), noticed that many people were looking at a certain page on her Web site. Because she noticed the significant interest in that subject, she created a new speech about that topic and plans to create a new product to meet the needs of that audience. She said she never would have known about this market opportunity if she hadn't looked at her log files.

How many of us think we know what our readers or customers want? All of us. How many of us are correct? Well, maybe some of us some of the time. But if you really want to know what your customers are looking for, then look at your log files, as Risser did, and you'll find an incredible amount of market research in them.

• What's in a log? Log files are records of all visitors to your site. Nearly 100 pieces of data will help you serve them better.
• How many visitors? Log files count real people, when they visited, and whether they are newcomers or old-timers.
• Where they came from? Discover where your audience lives and which search engine or method they used to find you.
• Better than a focus group: And cheaper, too! Plus, log files will tell you which page your visitors were using when they decided to leave.
• Pinpointing problems: Log files won't tell you how to fix a problem, but they'll let you know where the problem is.
• Designing for your audience: Statistics on browsers and operating systems will help you decide how to design your site and who to design it for.
• Where can you find a log file? Your ISP—some offer charts in addition to text reports. If your ISP doesn't come through, check out these free programs or commercial programs to analyze your data.

What's in a log?

So, what are these log files? Log files are computerized records of all the visitors to your Web site. Every time a visitor comes to your site, she leaves a mark that can help you sell more products and services. You can see nearly 100 pieces of data that can help you serve your customers better and create a more productive Web site. Let's look at log files and see how they can help you sell more products and help your clients.

How many visitors?

The first statistic you'll notice is the number of people who visited your Web site. This is the real number of actual bodies that saw your site, not the misleading statistics of "hits," which really refers to the number of files viewed on your site. Hits is a totally faulty statistic that bad marketers refer to all the time! You don't need to know about hits. You need to know about visitors. Log files give you the number of real people who came to your Web site.

Armed with that number, you can begin to see if your marketing is working. For instance, is the number of visitors going up or down each week? If you just launched a new advertising campaign, you'll be able to see if the ads are attracting visitors.

Log files also will show you if visitors are coming for the first time, or if they have been at your site before. You can also see how long it has been since their last visit. These statistics can tell you how effective you are in getting new prospects, as well as seeing if your site is so "sticky" that people want to come back. If the figures are low, well, that tells you that you need to improve your site.

Log files won't tell you what to do, merely that there is a problem. It's like taking a blood pressure test: You'll discover if your pressure is just right or too high, but it won't tell you what you need to do to correct the situation. For that, you have to work with experts, or trust your instincts to fine tune your message and the presentation.

These statistics can show other pieces of the marketing puzzle as well.

From where?

Log files tell you the time of day when people visit your site. If you run radio ads to promote your Web site, you should see a spike in traffic during the time the ads run. If not, your ads might not be working. Another company noticed a spike in traffic every time it issued a press release.

Log files will show you where people live. You might discover you have a large following in France. Based on that knowledge, you might decide to translate your site into French so people there can read your material more easily, and post information about international ordering processes.

If you dig deeper into log files, you'll find very interesting information, such as how visitors found out about your site in the first place. These are called "referrer pages." I found that most people come to my site directly by typing in my address (www.janal.com) but a good number come from articles I have written for eFuse, my appearances on ZDTV, and listings on industry indexes. From that, I realized I'd better keep up my publicity--because it works.

You'll also see what kind of traffic you get from the all-important search engines. I found out that I got a lot of traffic from some engines, but not from others. I realized I needed to tweak my site to improve my rankings in those engines.

You can also see the keyword terms people used on the search engines to find your site. If you have this information, you might discover that people are interested in one particular product line because that's what they typed to find you.

E-focus groups

As Rita Risser found out, people were deeply interested in a topic that she didn't realize was red hot! In the real world, you'd have to pay thousands of dollars on focus groups or direct mail tests to find what people really want. If you look at your log files, you'll have the answers at your fingertips! And you won't have to spend a fortune to get this invaluable market research.

Another important statistic log files show is the last page your visitors saw before they left your site and continued to surf the Web. Don't be upset that they left: Everyone leaves eventually. The marketing mystery here is: Did they see your complete message before they left? For example, if people left after viewing only your front page and never saw your offer page or order sheet, then there is clearly something wrong with that page.

It can be the writing, layout, or graphics that are turning people off. Or it can simply be that they were curious, visited your site, but then decided they weren't interested in the topic you were covering. Maybe they'll come back. There are many reasons, and you don't want to get so absorbed in the numbers themselves that you lose sight of the fact that there are many possible meanings. You'll need to test each factor to see what the problem is.

Get a clue

The point is that you now have a clue to understand why your site isn't working as effectively as it should (or where it's working better than expected). You might find that people do read the front page, click on your product information, and then bail out. Now you can see that there is something wrong with that page. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know there is a problem here. Log files help you find that problem. Think of it as the smoking gun of your Web site improvement program: Log files tell you where the problem could be.

Log files won't tell you what is wrong, merely that something isn't working as well as it could be. For instance, did your prospects leave on a page that included a form? Could that mean the form was too complicated to fill out? Or, could it mean other things, like the price was too high? Web analysis won't show you WHY people bailed out, only that they did. You have to figure out the why.

Designing for your audience

You'll also see statistics on the type of browser and operating system your visitors use. This can be useful in determining how to design your page. If your stats show that most viewers have older software and slower connections, you certainly don't want to load your page with lots of slow-loading picture files and animations! On the other hand, if your readers are on the cutting edge, you want to make their experience on your site enjoyable with the latest tools and applets.

For example, I discovered that 75 percent of my visitors used Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer, while about 25 percent used Netscape Navigator. That meant I needed to make sure the site took advantage of each browser's unique display capabilities. If lots of people used AOL, I'd have to design the site to take into account their rather, shall we say, interesting way of presenting information so it displays properly on their browsers.

How can you get this information?

Easy. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should keep these statistics. If they don't, you need to find a new ISP. Most good ISPs will show you the log files for free. Good ones also will show you the information in a variety of formats, including text and graphics, such as bar charts and pie charts. These graphics are good because they can show you visually what you might not see as easily in text reports. Text reports have benefits as well because you can see certain types of information more easily, such as the keywords used to find your site in the search engines.

ISPs and software

Companies such as www.verio.com have local ISPs all over the country, and many of them, such as www.best.com, not only keep log files but give you a free copy of Virtual WebTrends, a leading program for formatting and analyzing those files.

If your ISP doesn't offer statistics, consider using a free utility that will present log file reports. Check out these sites: MyComputer, HyperBanner, Extreme Tracking, and HitBox. There are other programs on the market as well so you need to read the literature and reviews to find the one that best meets your needs. The problem with many Web site-based systems such as this is that they may only track a single page on your site, rather than the whole site, and this gives you far less useful information.

One of the best commercial programs that analyzes this data is called Web Trends, www.webtrends.com. It provides you with dozens of reports in both numerical and graphical formats (in color!). You can easily see what users are doing on your Web site. You can also tailor the reports to include factoids that are relevant to you, and exclude the rest. For example, you might not care what time people visit your site. With this program, you won't waste time reading irrelevant data.

At the high end of the spectrum, large companies with significant traffic should consider using Accrue Insight, www.accrue.com , which provides very detailed reports and can combine activity from multiple locations, normally a daunting task. It can also show you the path each visitor took through your site, so you can really see if your site is working properly or where the problems are.

If you want to improve traffic to your site, find out what your customers are looking for and keep your customers satisfied, the answer is easier than you think. All that information – and a lot more – is in your log files.

About the author

Daniel Janal is president of Janal Communications, a 15-year-old on-line marketing agency. He is the author of the best-selling classic Online Marketing Handbook, and Risky Business: Protect Your Business from Being Stalked, Conned or Blackmailed on the Web, which was named one of the 30 best business books of 1998 by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. He can be reached at dan@janal.com or www.janal.com. Dan was on the PR team that launched America Online more than 15 years ago and is one of the true veteran marketers in the on-line world. His client list includes IBM, Readers Digest, American Express, Catalog City, City Search, and many other large and small businesses.

Illustration: Ingo Fast's Technology at www.artville.com