How do you track the google bot

sorry about the newbe question

[winprobe]

I was reading about the google bot and i see all this stuff about the googlebot is on my site the bot comes everyday freshbot deep search bot? i have no clue what you people are talking about i have a idea about how it works but i want to know HOW to TRACK the bot not how it works but when it comes to my site is there anyway i can see that i have a hosting company i DON'T host my site what can i do to see the bot come to my site it's like a comit it comes every 50 years but i miss the darn thing any ideas?

[mack]

Generaly site owners will use a stats program to monitor bots from search engines. Bots are basicaly programs that surf the web automaticaly. When they arrive on a page they will record the information about the page then follow all the links from that page to find more pages, either from your site or sites you link to.

When a surfer comes to your site their browser will have a useragent. (internet explorer) etc. When a bot lands on your site it will also have a useragent. Google for example is googlebot and altavista is scooter. The useragent is basicaly a "calling card" saying it's me.

Every time your page is accessed the server records the visitor in your log files. The log file is a record of every useragent that has been to your site. From your log files you will be able to see what came to your site, what time, from where etc. There are software tools that are there to help decipher the logs and make them into usefull information.

Hope this is of some help.

Mack.

[chadlerh]

I haven't seen a program that tracks googlebots path really well.

[onlineleben]

Use one of the free stats programs like analog (quite often discussed here).
There you can exclude all browsers (a robot/spider is nothing else when it comes to logfile analyzis) and allow googlebot. Use following syntax in your config file:

BROWEXCLUDE *
BROWINCLUDE Googlebot*

Now only the lines in your logfile related to googlebot get analyzed.

Hope this helps.

[winprobe]

Where do i find this analog?

[tigger]

search on Google you will find it

[winprobe]

I found it thanks now to set it all up

[winprobe]

i'll learn all the tricks to websites but you see there is a differance i will tell the whole world the tricks because i don't want to see someone go thru what i have since 1999 with low rank to my site trying to find a answer to a question to fix or repair my site but i can say one thing you guys did help me out and for the other sites that want money to a simple question one day you will be out of business because sites like this that want to help people will be around for a long time people like free and the guys here are not in it for the money they went thru hard times with there sites too

[vdlddd8379]

Wow, that was one long sentence!

[vitaplease]

using analog:

replace the anolog.cfg file's content with:

LOGFILE "C:\logdirectory\example.log"
OUTFILE report.html

BROWEXCLUDE *
BROWINCLUDE Googlebot*

REQUEST ON

REQFLOOR 1r

the last two lines will show you which pages have been visited by Fredbot.

Anyone have the lines to see a graph of number of visites per day during a month?

[winprobe]

thanks for all the help but people here want to send me e-mail telling me not to post on this board so i won't.

[onlineleben]

>>telling me not to post on this board so i won't.<<
? don't understand why?
Only thing that may cause this is that you have not chosen the correct forum category. Your request would have been better suited for the Tracking and Logging [webmasterworld.com] category.

Also making use of the site search function helps a lot before making any queries. But this shouldn't stop you from contributing.

[mack]

"thanks for all the help but people here want to send me e-mail telling me not to post on this board so i won't."

The main feature of webmasterworld is welcoming everyone, and trying to help each other out. There is no reason you shouldent feel free to post. You are as welcome to contribute as the next person. It's all about community.

If you have a problem do a search, if you still cany find an answer find a forum where your question would be best suited and ask. Im sure someone will be able to help you.

Mack.