"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

Choosing a Web Hosting Provider

Log File Access

SUMMARY: Why accessing your website log files is essential. Ensure your web hosting provider offers them.

Viewing your website's log files can be vital for many reasons:

* Error logs can determine if visitors access pages that don't exist (404 errors), showing you where errors may occur in your links.

* Referrer logs show how people are finding your website, providing ideas on how to maximize your marketing efforts.

* Access logs state your most popular files, which can provide you with marketing ideas, website re-design ideas to focus on popular sections, and more.

* User Agent logs can show the operating systems and browsers used by those visiting your site, in case you want to optimize your site or message towards particular groups of computer users.

When choosing a web hosting provider, make sure you can access at the very least website log reports, and, if possible, the raw log files so you can run your own reports. You should be able to find out how many people are coming to your site, from where, how they are accessing the site, and why they are visiting.