The Importance of Referrer Logs

The Importance of Referrer Logs

Referrer logging is used to allow web servers and websites to identify where
people are visiting them either for promotional or security purposes. You can
find out which search engine they used to find your site and whether your
customer has come from a linked site. It is basically the URL of the previous
webpage from which your link was followed.

By default, most hosting accounts don't include referrer logs but may be
subscribedd for an extra monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a
graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your
website by logging into the host server using free or low-cost FTP software,
like these:

Referrer Logs URL's

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 download into your
computer later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to
create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to
understand.

Referrer Logs Files

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

You can view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if
you don't have the right 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 site from where your
visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword
phrases your client used for searching.

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

Since the Referrer Logs can easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited
use in this regard except on a casual basis and you should be careful when using Referrer Logs

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