log file analysis

[Joe Hussar]

Hello..........



I'm learning to analyze log files (using Sawmill).......

There are quite a few entries that come up in the page hits analysis like this:

/mypage1.htm? (default page)
/mypage6.htm? (default page)

I also show hits on
/mypage1.htm
/mypage6.htm

without the ? and (default page) comment. Also, on my site I use various ads and have tracking URLs like this:
/mypage15.htm?source=google/

But on none of the pages such as mypage1.htm or mypage6.htm have I appended tracking URLS to them. Does anyone know where these pages with the ? appended come from? I don't know if they represent legitimate hits.......or if they should just be discarded

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Joe Hussar
http://www.candylandcrafts.com/

[Zach Elfers]

If you have a form with input boxes in it, you can type ?fieldName=fieldValue and it will fill those elements in when you arrive at the page. I think this is right.

[Joe Hussar]

Hello Zach.............

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I don't think i understand.....however..........


I DO have a form on my website, for people to order things not listed in the site..........

that page is: http:www.candylandcrafts.com/candylandorderform.htm

but that's the only "form" and the pages that I'm getting the ? appended to are different ones..............nothing to do with candylandorderform.htm

Or when you say:

If you have a form with input boxes in it, you can type ?fieldName=fieldValue and it will fill those elements in when you arrive at the page

Do you mean that when someone is going to go to my site from the internet.........they got there by using some kind of form.......like if they are searching from a search engine.........and they put, say this, into the search form box:
?cake decorating

then if my link:

http://www.candylandcrafts.com/cakedecorating.htm
pops up from the search, and then they click on it to go to my site...............that as a result from all this, I might see in my log file: /cakedecorating.htm? (with the asterick)

Thanks..........

[jeffmott]

There are quite a few entries that come up in the page hits analysis like this:

/mypage1.htm? (default page)
/mypage6.htm? (default page)

I also show hits on
/mypage1.htm
/mypage6.htm

The ? should probably be ignored in this case. Static pages are still the same page with or without the query. You also probably should ignored the fragment portion of the URI (mypage1.htm#fragment).