The Importance Of Website Traffic Referrer Logs

Referrer logging is utilized to permit web servers and web sites to identify where people are visiting them either for marketing or security purposes. You can uncover which search engine they used to find your site and whether your customer has come from a ‘linked site’. It’s basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.

By default, most hosting accounts don’t consist of referrer logs but may be subscribed for an additional monthly fee. If your web host doesn’t provide a graphic report of your log files, you’ll be able to still view the referrer logs for your web site by logging into the host server utilizing free or low-cost FTP software, like these:

FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/ LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/ FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/

The log file is available on your web server which can be downloaded into your pc later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files to ensure that the files are easier to understand.

Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/ Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/ Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net

You’re able to view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even should you don’t have the proper tool. This information is very crucial to your business and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.

In addition to identifying the search engine or linked website from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client utilized for searching.

As referrer information can sometimes violate privacy, some browsers allow the user to disable the sending of referrer info. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer info, to avoid leaking the location of private websites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their website to browsers that don’t send the right referrer info, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software program gives the top-level address of the target website itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user’s last visited website.

Since the referrer can very easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.

Vince Chng is an ordinary guy that making an average $40k per month online. He specializes in driving a massive targeted traffic to any website. To learn more about the simple traffic generating strategies, download his limited FREE giveaway copy of “750 Tips on Traffic Tactics” eBook Package value at $97. www.WebTrafficTactics.net