Log file analysis is one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO, and most SEO experts have never conducted one. If you aren’t performing log file analysis, you are missing out on unique and invaluable insights that regular crawling tools just can’t produce.
Log Files
According to the professionals from the best SEO agency, log Files are files containing detailed logs on who and what is making requests to your website server. We all know that every time a bot makes a request to your website, data is stored in the log. By analysing the data stored in the log, you can find out what Googlebot and other crawlers are doing on your site. It provides an exact overview of how your website is being crawled. This data can help you in,
- Identifying areas of crawl budget waste
- Finding access errors
- Understanding how your SEO efforts are affecting crawling and more
A log file includes multiple data points such as,
- Server IP
- Date and time
- Server request method (e.g. GET / POST)
- Requested URL
- HTTP status code
- User-agent
Identify Crawl Budget Waste
What is a Crawl Budget?
Crawl Budget is the number of pages a search engine crawls upon every visit of your site. Link equity, domain authority, site speed, and more can affect the crawl budget.
Performing log file analysis helps you to determine the type of crawl budget your site has and what are the issues that lead to crawl budget waste. Your crawling budget shouldn’t be wasted on low-value pages and URLs because it affects the crawl rates of priority pages. So, necessary steps must be taken to conserve crawl budget and improve organic search performance.
Determine Site Crawl Behaviour
By doing log file analysis, you can easily determine how bots behave and provide a clear insight into how they behave in different situations. It not only provides you with a deep understanding of SEO and crawling but also helps you to understand the effectiveness of your site structure.
Find Crawl Issues
Log site analysis provides you with better data than the search console. With search console, it is difficult to get historical data, and there are limits on the number of rows you can view. Log site analysis helps you to determine more crawl and response errors and performs a full health check on your website.
Find On-page Problems
Did you know websites must be designed both for humans and bots? A slow-loading page or a huge download can cause on-page problems, and the log file analysis will help you see both of these metrics per URL from a bot’s perspective.
The Bottom Line
Log file analysis is an effective strategy that can be included in SEO packages for small business and gives you a better understanding of how Googlebot behaves and help you diagnose problems at the earliest.
'