Google: Log File Analysis Is So Underrated

Apr 12, 2016 - 8:05 am 10 by
Filed Under Web Analytics

google log file

I remember the days of prepping before client meetings by scouring through tons of log files to tell the client how much traffic they were getting from their web site. This was pre-Urchin analytics days. It was painful but truth was, you found some awesome gems in those log files.

Log files can be very revealing and help with traffic interpretation, crawler analysis, spam detection and much much more.

Recently, Google's John Mueller said on Twitter "Log files are so underrated, so much good information in them."

Indeed.

And guess what, a tool came out from an old SEO tools company, Screaming Frog this morning that does the analysis for you. Truth is, I spotted a lot of conversation around this tool on Twitter this morning. I have not looked at it, nor did the company ask me to look at it. But I do miss the days of log file analysis. Google Analytics makes it too easy. :P

Do you analyze your log files manually?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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