Log Analyzing question.

Help with improving accuracy.

[SirNutty]

Hi WW

I'm currently downloading my log files on a daily basis and testing various 3rd party log analyzers (including webtrends, nettracker etc.)

My question relates mainly to referrers. The top referrers in all my reports for the last few months have basically been my own domain name. As an example, my last days stats indicated 20 referrals from Google (amongst others)and 130 referrals from www.mysite.com. It's good to see traffic but I have absolutely no idea where it is coming from and it normally accounts for 80% of all referrals!

Am I doing something wrong or is this to be expected?

TIA

P.S. Running ASP ecommerce site.

[le_gber]

Hi, is there any config line where you can say to your log file analizer not to take your site/URL into account when parsing it?

leo

[Birdman]

Yes, it is expected because when people surf from page to page in your site, the referrer to each new page they view will be the previous page they were at, which was on your domain. When they first arrive at your site, the referrer will be the other site that linked to you. Or, it could be blank if the user typed your url directly in their browser address field.

[SirNutty]

Sincere thanks for your advice,

I actually thought that the analyzer would only take into account the external referrers but having read your posts it makes a great deal more sense now. I've also taken a look at the config suggestion and that can also be done which would certainly clear up my stats (in terms of analyzing referrals) in a big way.

My thanks to you both.

[cornwall]

Have a look at

[webmasterworld.com...]

It's the best we have been able to do to try to tease an answer from this sort of question