Source of off-site hits

[aantero]

Hello,

I have several news stories on my webpage. There is one particular story that is getting hits from a link that is off-site (somebody is getting to a particular story on my webpage from clicking on a link on another website). Is there a way for me to know where these hits originate from?

[2_much]

Hi, I presume you haven't checked your logs in the past. If you haven't, write to your hosting company and ask them about your logs and how you can view them. Most hosting companies will give you some sort of log access, even if not with the best tools.

Then, you have to look at your referrals, and this will tell you where the traffic is coming from.

If they don't have one, there are a couple of free log analysis tools that you can add to your site where you can check. I'm not sure if extremeD is still free, but I've used that one in the past...also AWstats.

[rogerd]

Welcometo WebmasterWorld, aantero!

One thing to watch - if you look at your logs (or traffic reports) and there is no referrer data, you will have to ask your host to turn on extended logging. Many hosts seem to turn on only the most basic logging by default, and fail to capture referrer data, browser and OS, etc.

[shasan]

or you could go to google.com and type in

link:www.yoursite.com/yourstory

and check the 'back links' to your site. This will only show results if the other site is indexed by Google.

btw,

How do you know that the hits are coming to the article from another site? I'm curious.