Log File Analysis and SEO

By Kalena and Jerry Jordan

If you own or manage a website, you are probably already aware of the importance of your log files or site statistics. Such data can give you insights about your site's usability, errors in your HTML code, the popularity of your site pages and the type of visitors your site attracts. But did you know it can also highlight the success or failure of your search engine optimization campaign?

There is specific data about your web site that you should be looking at in your log files on a regular basis. Several variables should be examined monthly or even weekly to ensure your site design and page optimization is on the right track:


1. Entry Paths

Most sites can be developed and analysed around the concept of visitor pathways. If, for example, your site is a Business to Business (B2B) site and you service small, medium and large businesses, there should be pathways through your site designed for each class of visitor. An extremely simplified example would be:

Clients coming to the site through an optimized home page:

home page ---> small business page ---> order page ---> order confirmation page
home page ---> medium business page ---> order page ---> order confirmation page
home page ---> large business page ---> order page ---> order confirmation page


The site entry pages for these pathways are often optimized home pages or optimized content pages. The final page of this route is often the action that you want clients to take on your site (e.g., sign up for your newsletter, buy your products online or contact you for further information). You can easily determine how effective your pathways are by tracking the entry paths on a regular basis via your site stats.

You should have some idea of the main pathways that clients take through your site, both for monitoring the effectiveness of your page optimization and conversions, and for the purpose of subsequent site redesign(s). A good starting point to track the pathways through your site is via the graph or chart called "Entry Paths" in your log files / site statistics.


2. Top Exit Pages

These are pages from which most visitors click away from your site. Why is it useful to track these? Because exit pages can tell you:

a. If there is a technical problem with the page that is causing visitors to leave your site. For example, if there are broken links, or the form on the page is not working properly etc.

b. If your site design is breaking the strategic pathway, for example, you may have links to external sites that are inducing clients to click away before buying your product or signing up for your newsletter.

c. If there is something on these pages that is encouraging visitors to leave your site. For example, an unprofessional design or confusing layout.

In your log files / site statistics, the graph or chart called "Top Exit Pages" is the place to learn why visitors are leaving your site.


3. Single Access Pages

These are entry pages that are viewed once before the visitor clicks away from your site. Similar to Top Exit Pages, Single Access Pages can tell you a lot about why people are not staying on your site for long.

Have a close look at the search terms used to find your site. Single Access Pages can often indicate that your target search terms are too broad. For example, you may be getting a lot of traffic by targeting "printer cartridges" but if you only stock a particular brand of cartridge, then people seeking other brands are not going to find what they truly seek when they arrive at your site so they will leave immediately. This can be resolved by narrowing down your search terms to be more targeted and focused on your niche products and services, for example, by changing "printer cartridges" to "HP printer cartridges" and so on.

To see what pages of your site are viewed once, look for the graph or chart called "Single Access Pages" in your log files / site statistics.


4. Most Requested Page(s) and Top Entry Pages

Tracking these pages is key to measuring the success of your SEO campaign. If your optimization is effective, the Top Entry Pages and Most Requested Pages should be those that you have optimized for target keywords. The Top Entry Pages are particularly relevant as you consider the pathways through your site. Do the most popular entry pages have any relationship to the start pages for your plotted visitor pathways? Or are visitors entering and navigating your site via ways you didn't intend? You can use this information to continually tweak your page optimization to guide visitors to the right pathways.

To see your most requested pages, look for the graph or chart titled "Most Requested Pages" in your log files / site statistics. Also look for "Top Entry Pages".


5. Page refreshes

Why are visitors refreshing pages on your site? Are the pages not loading properly? The "Page Refreshes" variable is another one to monitor on a monthly basis via your site stats to ensure that there are not site usability issues for visitors.


6. Referring Domains and Referring URLs

Where are your visitors coming from? Are they coming from sites that are linked to yours? Are blog authors or forum members talking about your site? Referring Domains will tell you what sites are linking to yours, while Referring URLs will list the actual pages where the links are located. These can be little gold mines because you can often find valuable sources of traffic via links to your site that you didn't even know existed.

In terms of an SEO campaign, these links can all add to your site's overall link popularity, an important factor in the ranking algorithms of many search engines, particularly Google. Monitoring these metrics can tell you if your site requires a link-building campaign or help you measure the effectiveness of various online and offline advertising campaigns.

In your log files / site statistics, Look for the graph or chart titled "Referring Domains" and "Referring URLs".


7. Search Engine Referrals

How many of your visitors are coming directly from search engines? What percentage of overall traffic does this represent? This is a good variable to track to help you keep up with how many search engines are listing your site (both free submission and paid submissions), how much traffic they bring and whether to renew your paid submissions. It can also tell you whether you need to increase the number of search engines your site is submitted to in order to build on your link popularity. As a a very rough guide, you should be receiving at least 30 percent of your site traffic via search engine referrals.

To see search engine referrals, look for a chart or graph called "Search Engines" within your site statistics.


8. Search Phrases

This topic is related to search engine referrals generally, but gives added insight into what terms you were actually found for in the search engines. Do these terms match what your site was optimized for? Are there any surprising terms that you might want to develop site content for? Some log file analysis programs will even break down what specific phrases your site was found for in which particular search engines. The more detailed the data you have, the more closely you can tweak your optimization campaign to your precise market.

To see the search phrases your site was found for, look for "Search Phrases" or "Search Phrases by "Search Engine".


9. Landing pages for PCC Campaigns, etc.


If you run a pay-per-click campaign or dedicate specific pages to advertising product specials, you may use special landing pages or tracking ids to monitor your traffic and conversions. Your site logs can help you track these by showing you how many visitors they each had and what they did after they visited those pages.


10. Metric values that show a radical change from developing trends

Any site metrics that show a dramatic change from one month to the next could pin-point a problem with your site or with your optimization campaign. For example, if your search engine referrals have dropped dramatically, it could indicate that you have been penalized in a search engine (or more than one). Noticing changing trends early gives you the chance to investigate problem areas and make adjustments if necessary.


Please note that all log file analysis and site statistics programs are different and use slightly different terms to describe the metrics listed above. If you're confused, ask your site admin or hosting provider to highlight these for you.

Remember, your log files are gold mines filled with nuggets of information about your optimized web site. If you keep digging on a regular basis, you'll eventually strike it rich with success.

Copyright © 2005 by Kalena and Jerry Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.

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The above article may be re-published as long as the content remains unchanged and the following paragraph is included at the end of the article, including the URL links:

Article by Kalena and Jerry Jordan. As well as running their own SEO business Web Rank, Kalena and Jerry Jordan manage Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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Internet Marketing and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

by Palyn Peterson

I was just thinking about something I'd like to share with you, and hopefully it'll give you something to think about as well. I was remembering when I took a motorcycle riding safety class when I was 23 years old. I had no previous riding experience, aside from a bit of mountain biking with a 21-speed, and I figured it wouldn't be too much different going from that to a motorcycle.

Yes, it gives me slight grin now, too. Boy was it was crazy, I couldn't have been more wrong! I imagined myself just climbing on and riding off into the sunset like a pro. But when the time came and I actually sat on the bike for the first time and rode a few hundred feet, it was quite an eye-opener, to say the least. I felt like I was 15 years old again, with a driving permit in my wallet and my mom in the passenger seat.

Those familiar emotions were running through me again -- apprehension, confusion, excitement and fear -- only this time I had more life-experience under my belt to better manage them all.Sure, having driven a manual transmission car for many years did help control the motorcycle, but it was still pretty foreign. But with time, practice, and making plenty of mistakes, I got pretty good at it. Eventually, it became second nature.

And even now, after all the experience I've gained, I'm planning on taking an advanced riders safety course.This reminds me of internet marketing. Maybe you are just starting your first online business, or maybe you are on to your second or third and are now marketing those. Where ever you are at, the amount of business experience you have will vary from most everyone else; but here's a fact no matter how long you've been doing it: if you don't practice internet marketing, it will never get any easier.

Internet marketing is just like learning to ride a motorcycle or drive a car. Before actually getting into the thick of it, people may tell you "Oh, it's so easy!" or "All you have to know is this, that's it." Even when you think about the steps and procedures beforehand, you can convince yourself that you have it all planned out and it'll go off without a hitch. But once you actually do it, you get that much needed reality check.

Internet marketing isn't something you can just "do" and get right the first time around. Yes, it is important to take advice from professionals you trust and who are where you want to be, and to read their eBooks and what not. But it is much more important to actually get out there and do it yourself. Guru's can point they way, but they can't give you experience. To be successful at internet marketing, it takes focus, concentration, and especially practice. Just like using a clutch, you will mess up your marketing.

You may gun it, and offer your customers a product that would've sold better had you waited. You might pick a product you are not really qualified to market. Whatever it is, be it headlines, sales copy, product placement -- you will get it wrong some of the time. But the more you practice marketing, the more you read about people who are doing it correctly and effectively, the more you write and rewrite, the better you will get.

Eventually, you will develop a "sixth-sense" of what is good or bad -- marketing will become second nature to you.Most people are looking for the easy way out. That's why "get-rich quick" schemes are selling so well (and ruining it for us legitimate netizens, damn it!). But those people never reach their ultimate goals, because there is no legitimate, fool-proof quick way -- especially one where you can keep your conscience clean! All those who are determined to succeed, who try and try again and do not stop despite all the obstacles in their path -- those are the ones that will succeed, guaranteed.

You can do anything you want in life; no one can stop you but you, and this does include financial independence. Ask yourself what you really want out of life. Would you rather catch the new episode of 'Friends,' or spend time strengthening your sales copy? It's easy to get distracted, but stick to your guns and re-do it for the tenth time. Just remember, for every time you get something wrong, you are that much closer to getting it right.


Copyright © by Palyn Peterson
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Palyn Peterson publishes the acclaimed Advanced Internet Marketing News. A professional newsletter with a refreshing perspective and a strong focus on no-cost techniques. http://www.futureinternetmarketing.com/FREE Tips, Tricks, Tools, Resources, eBooks, and More!
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How to Submit Your Site To Directories

By Kalena Jordan

Unlike submitting to search engines, submitting your site to directories and niche portals usually involves a lot more than simply typing in your URL. You often have to start by researching the various topic categories to find the most appropriate area to submit to. Then you generally have to provide some detailed information about your site, its’ content, your company and your contact details.

When selecting the most appropriate Directory category to submit your site to, conduct a search for your main keyword phrase and view the various related categories. Study the sites listed within these categories and choose the category that is the most relevant to or closely related to your site content. Some directories like ODP have specific Category Descriptions you should read before submitting, to ensure you have chosen the most relevant topic for your site.

Another way to choose your category is to search for sites belonging to your direct competitors. It is likely that the category they are listed in will be the most relevant to your site.

If your site targets or discusses a specific regional market, you will need to submit to a regional category. For example, if my site was about rental cars for hire in Sydney, Australia, I would need to submit it to this regional Yahoo category and not this general Yahoo rental car category.

I find it useful to submit a slightly different description of my client’s sites for each directory submission. That way, I can gauge which descriptions are more effective in terms of encouraging people to click and also which directories are providing my clients with the most traffic. Many directories feed their database results to other engines and directories, so if I have a description unique to each directory and I see that description pop up on other search sites, I know it is the result of that original directory submission and immediately recognize the value of that original submission.

Remember that directory editors don’t care about your site’s ranking in their search results. If they are reviewing a site submission that contains an obviously keyword stuffed title and description, they are unlikely to find it appealing or beneficial for inclusion in their database! Always make sure your submission details are relevant, interesting and accurate. Try to highlight your site’s benefits for the visitor and unique content that makes it stand out from others in the same category. If your site sounds just like a cookie-cutter version of others of the same topic, there is no incentive for the editor to include it.


Submitting to the Yahoo! Directory

There are a couple of sites where you want to take extreme care and do advance research when submitting your site. One of these is the Yahoo! Directory. The way you submit your site to Yahoo! can make or break your site’s ultimate ranking in the Directory and if you’re not careful, could also cost you USD 299 for nothing.

With Yahoo!’s huge market share and popularity worldwide, I believe it’s vital that your site is listed in Yahoo!’s Directory. The best way to get listed quickly is by paying the fee for Express Submission. Yahoo! Express is an expedited fee-based site suggestion service for web sites submitted to the Yahoo! directory. A member of Yahoo!'s editorial staff will look at your site, consider your suggestion and respond to you within 7 business days. Important: Payment does not guarantee inclusion in the directory, site placement, or site commentary. It only guarantees that Yahoo! will respond to your suggestion within seven business days, by either adding or denying the site.

The secret to obtaining excellent results via your Yahoo! submission is to choose the most appropriate category and include a carefully-crafted description that contains your main keyword phrase/s without being too verbose. For those of you offering a Yahoo! submission service to clients, be sure to charge a generous admin fee for your expertise in researching the category and writing the description for your client – a successful Yahoo submission can pay dividends for your client for years.

Example of a successful site description for Yahoo!:

ABC VIP Adventures - offers tailored adventure travel and vacation packages to New Zealand including day tours, exotic corporate trips, luxury travel packages, kite surfing, and extreme sports.

Example of an unsuccessful site description for Yahoo!:

ABC Travel – we are the best! We are the only company to contact for your vacation. Call now!

The latter does not use the actual company name, plus it contains lots of hype but no keywords and few clues as to what the site is about. In this case, the Yahoo! editor would have to visit the site submitted and come up with their own description and it’s doubtful the edited description will be something the submitter would be happy with.


Submitting to Open Directory

Another Directory where submission is critical is the Open Directory. DMOZ is run entirely by volunteers and your site submission must be hand-reviewed by one of these volunteers before it can be considered for inclusion. DMOZ is extremely under-staffed (I know this because I’m a DMOZ editor!) and it can take 6 or more months before your submission is reviewed – you must be patient. When submitting to DMOZ, make sure you follow the directory submission guidelines above and prepare to wait, wait and wait some more.

Procedure to follow for a successful DMOZ Submission:

1) Submit site
2) wait for 3 months
3) follow up email to category editor
4) wait for 3 months
5) escalation email to category editor above your category
6) wait for 3 months
7) ask for assistance in the Open Directory Public Forum
8) wait for 1 month
9) escalation email to DMOZ senior staff & post to various forums seeking help (last resort only)
10) Assume your submission is not relevant for DMOZ inclusion and move on!


Rules of Submission

1) Do it once: Despite the hype, there is NEVER a need to resubmit to a search engine or directory unless your site is dropped entirely (which is a very rare occurrence).
2) Do it properly: Be very thorough when submitting, especially to directories. Take the time to research and locate the most appropriate category for your site.
3) Be brief: Don’t waffle on about your site in the description field. Get to the point and describe your site in a short sentence or two.
4) Be accurate: Don’t try to trick potential visitors by using vague or misleading descriptions about your products or services.
5) Be relevant: There is a fine line to tread between relevance and keyword optimization when creating your site descriptions for submissions. Try not to cross it by using descriptions over-stuffed with keywords.
6) Be humble: “Best Web Site in the World!!!!” is not going to convince anyone and may earn you the wrath of search engine editors.
7) Be patient: Search engines and directories can take up to 6 months to index and list your site. Re-submitting won’t help things and could result in your site being shoved to the bottom of the review pile.


So that wraps up the directory submission process. It can be time consuming, but taking a little bit of time and care with your submissions can pay dividends for your site for years to come.


(1,206 words)

Copyright © 2005 by Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.

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The above article may be re-published as long as the content remains unchanged and the following paragraph is included at the end of the article, including the URL links:

Article by Kalena Jordan. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank, Kalena Jordan manages Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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How to Submit Your Site To Search Engines

By Kalena Jordan

Many years ago, when I was first learning about optimization and search engine submission, I looked everywhere on the Web for an easy tutorial that explained step-by-step how to submit a website to search engines and directories. I couldn’t find one and so I had to piece together the most successful process to use via trial and error.

Now there is such a huge amount of misinformation on the Web about search engine submission, I thought it was high time I wrote a basic tutorial to help webmasters sort fact from fiction.


Before You Begin

Before you can start to submit your site to search engines, you need to make sure it is ready for indexing. Use the following checklist to be absolutely sure your site is submission-ready:

• Are all pages complete? (No “under construction” pages)
• Are all links valid? (No broken or dead links)
• Are all pages optimized?
• Are all pages search engine compatible?
• Have you used Robots.txt or Robots META Tag to prevent pages you want hidden (e.g. shopping cart) from being indexed?
• If your site is an e-commerce site, is your ordering process or shopping cart functional and tested for bugs?
• Are you prepared to handle a sudden influx of traffic and/or sales?
• Have you tested your site for usability? (Google “web site usability” for more information)
  

Submission Spreadsheet

To make your job of submitting easier, you also need to prepare a text file or spreadsheet listing the following:

1. Your site’s main URL
2. The URLs for other pages on your site that you will be submitting
3. Your site’s Title (the name of your site you want listed in engines. This is usually your
4. company name e.g. Atlanta City Tours or Acme Widgets)
5. A short description of your page/site content (10-20 words)
6. A long description of your page/site content (30-50 words)
7. A list of target keywords for your page/site
8. Name of submitter
9. Email address of submitter (we suggest using a real account you check regularly, but one where you have strict controls over incoming spam email – you will receive some spam as a result of your submissions!)
10. Address and contact details of your company (some directories ask for this)
    

It is particularly important to keep track of the email address you use when submitting your site, because some directories, like Yahoo for example, require you to cite this address if you want to make changes to your listing later on.

I like to use a text file created in Notepad for the above, but some people prefer to use a Word doc or a spreadsheet. It’s up to you. Remember to utilize your target search keywords as much as possible when creating your site descriptions. Or you can use parts of your optimized Title and META tags, as long as you don’t go overboard stuffing keywords and making your site description spam-like.

The site submission information I might prepare for a fictional Miami florist would look something like this:

1. http://www.funkyflorists.com/ (fictional URL for demonstration purposes only)
2. www.funkyflorists.com/page1.htm, www.funkyflorists.com/page2.htm etc
3. Funky Florists of Miami
4. Florists in Miami, Florida creating wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for gifts and special occasions. Online ordering available.
5. Funky Florists Miami create beautiful wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for all occasions, including weddings, Valentines Day, parties and corporate events. We arrange florist deliveries throughout Miami and right across Florida. We are one of very few florists in Florida to offer a personal floral service, delivered anywhere, anytime.
6. Florists Miami, florists Florida, wedding bouquets, wedding flowers, wedding roses, Valentine’s Day roses, sympathy gifts, Mother’s Day gifts, funeral wreaths, flower deliveries, floral arrangements, birthday gifts, wedding decorations.
7. Kalena Jordan
8. webmaster@funkyflorists.com
9. 12 Fictional StreetFictional Town, Miami FL USAPhone: (00) 555 55555
   

You should also create a spreadsheet or Word doc listing all the search engines you plan to submit your site to, their URLs, a comments field (for chosen categories etc) and a date column. Then as you submit to each site, you can check it off on your list, writing down the date submitted.

You could even create another date column for when your site appears in the search engine so you can gauge how long the submission took to become active. It’s important that you keep track of this information so that you don’t accidentally resubmit to a search engine or directory that you’ve already covered. If you are submitting to a search engine using a paid submission option, always make note of your receipt number in case you need to follow it up.

Happy submitting!

(780 words)

Copyright © 2005 by Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.

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The above article may be re-published as long as the content remains unchanged and the following paragraph is included at the end of the article, including the URL links:

Article by Kalena Jordan. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank, Kalena Jordan manages Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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