In Defence of Log Files

Log files provide a wealth of information. And yet, so few SEO's utilise them. In this talk, Beth will be showing you why log file analysis is essential for your technical SEO audit process.

Transcript

1. In Defence of Log Files Beth Woodcock @bethwoodcock speakerdeck.com/bethwoodcock
2. LOG FILES
3. LOG FILES Scared?
4. LOG FILES Scared? Confused?
5. LOG FILES Scared? Confused? Angry?
6. LOG FILES Scared? Confused? Angry? Intimidated?
7. LOG FILES
9. LOG FILES?
10. Bots request to see your site? They leave ‘footprints’ (logs) on where they have been!
11. No footprints? There’s a blockage! Think of what will happen to your content…
12. Log files have a NEGATIVE REPUTATION in the SEO industry…
13. IN DEFENCE OF LOG FILES!
14. Hi, I’m Beth I’m a Senior Technical SEO Executive I’m not from a technical background I want to make log files accessible to everybody.
15. But Beth, why do you care?
16. Without log files, SEO is a guessing game
17. How long do you wait for Google… Weeks? Months? Years?!
19. An actual technical SEO manager told me this “In order to download log files, you need to buy a data server as the files are too big for a regular laptop”
20. An actual technical SEO manager told me this “In order to download log files, you need to buy a data server as the files are too big for a regular laptop”
21. I do log file analysis on my laptop with no access to a data server
22. You can safely delete files from your computer when they are imported into the program, saving space!
23. We often import several Gigabytes worth of uncompressed log files without issue The larger the time frame you request data for, the more events that have to be considered, and the slower the response will be - ScreamingFrog Website
24. Monthly files are around 600MB On average 10k URLs crawled a day, with 650,000 crawled every month Regular log file analysis carried out
25. “In order to download log files, you need to buy a data server as the files are too big for a regular laptop” An actual technical SEO manager told me this
26. “In order to download log files, you need to buy a data server as the files are too big for a regular laptop” An actual technical SEO manager told me this
27. “Log files are too difficult to get. Our clients won’t give them to us”
28. “Log files are too difficult to get. Our clients won’t give them to us”
29. HAVE YOU ASKED?
30. I have asked, and I have to ask EVERY MONTH
31. FileZilla Your PC Client PC Drag and drop!
32. Direct from their server ‘LOGS’
33. There are also very technical coding alternatives if you’re interested in that.
34. “Log files are too difficult to get. Our clients won’t give them to us”
35. “Log files are too difficult to get. Our clients won’t give them to us”
36. “Log files look too complex. It’s up to the technical SEO team to deal with that”
37. “Log files look too complex. It’s up to the technical SEO team to deal with that”
38. Why are you looking at the matrix
39. GA4
40. Log file analyser
41. If you produce any content for a website, you should know how to use log files
42. Making sure Google can see new pages
43. Redirects? New links? New content? What’s the impact?
44. A case study on why a technical audit should always be completed before any other SEO process
45. The log files for the site had the /news/ section missing It turns out the template was making the /news/ section take
46. 14 SECONDS to load
47. We had evidence of the correlation between long load times and crawling. No guesswork needed here!
48. “Log files look too complex. It’s up to the technical SEO team to deal with that”
49. “Log files look too complex. It’s up to the technical SEO team to deal with that”
50. “My client uses Shopify, so I cannot access log files”
51. “My client uses Shopify, so I cannot access log files”
56. Only a small amount of information, not the whole logs (especially for big sites)
57. If there’s specific URLs you’re looking for it will be difficult to find them!
58. Can only see Google’s bots, nobody else’s
60. Log file analysis can be done on a laptop
61. Clients are often willing and knowledgeable enough to give you the log files you ask for
62. There are alternatives to asking for log files every month
63. NOW GO OUT AND DEFEND LOG FILES!
64. @bethwoodcock /in/bethanywoodcock/ aip.media Beth Woodcock Been working in SEO for 3 years with a speciality in technical SEO. DISCLAIMER: No AI was used in this presentation… apart from DALL-E, Photoshop generative fill, Upscayl and Mid Journey. Oh, and Chat GPT to generate this disclaimer…