In Part 2 of this series, we discussed some of the ways to track your web site visitors. Now we will take a look at:

4. Web Traffic Analysis Software

These are programs that analyze your server logs and then create traffic reports accordingly. The quality of the reports generated will depend on what software you actually use. Some log analyzers are free and come preinstalled on many hosting accounts, while others can cost a good deal of money.

Examples:
Webalizer (http://www.webalizer.com)
WebTrends (http://www.webtrends.com)

Webalizer (free)

The Webalizer is a fast, FREE, web server log file analysis program which produces usage statistics in HTML format for viewing with a standard web browser. The results are presented in both columnar and graphical format, which facilitates interpretation. Yearly, monthly, daily and hourly usage statistics are presented, along with the ability to display usage by site, URL, referrer, user agent (browser), search string, entry/exit page, username and country.

Here's an example of the Web Usage Statistics: http://www.webalizer.com/sample/index.htm

WebTrends ($495)

The Web Trends Analyzer produces essential reports on web site visitor patterns, referring sites, visitor paths and demographics. You can learn, for example, which sites and keyword searches have referred the largest number of visitors to your site.

It presents data, detailed and in-depth, in an organized and concise tabular format with full-color graphs.

This Log Analyzer is priced at $495 and is licensed for a single web server hosting content with a maximum of 50 domains.

Here's a sample of the web usage statistics: http://download.netiq.com/Library/SampleReports/WAS_LA_Complete/complete.htm

Conclusion:

Web traffic statistics provide very valuable information about your web site. You can make better marketing decisions through them telling you:

Which Web pages are most popular and which are least used. Who is visiting your Web site. Which Web browsers to optimize your Web pages for. Which Web search engines are most useful to you, and which are the least useful. Where errors or bad links may be occurring in your Web pages.

By analyzing your web traffic, you can determine what marketing strategies are successful. You can then change them as necessary, to boost the sales or services from your site.