I like many other webmasters regularly check logs and statistics of my websites to see what type of traffic I am receiving, and where it is coming from. It is a necessary part of search engine optimization and interactive marketing. I personally use awstats (an open source project) for this task as it analyzes the key areas of my logs that I am interested in and outputs it in a very easy to read and use HTML layout. However, awstats while very useful, doesn't by itself allow you to deeply analyze the logs and see exactly who is visiting you which in turn determines to some extent whether your marketing campaigns have been successful.

Enter GeoLite City by Maxmind. Another open source project (with licensed paid versions as well) that is easily added to awstats as a plugin. GeoLite City is a database of ip address ranges showing the location they are registered to. This allows awstats to check this database against every ip address that visits you, and prints this information into your awstat logs! Pretty cool huh! This information is extremely useful to determine how successful your marketing initiatives have been.

As an example, say you post an ad for investment properties in various local Dallas, Houston and Austin Texas newspapers. In this ad you included your web site information. With this plug-in you will be able to analyze exactly how effective your ads are pulling. Not seeing the results you want and the hits from Houston? Maybe pulling the ad, modifying it or changing the placement will yield better results and a positive return on your investment! That is just a small example of you can utilize this software and the GeoIP database to your advantage. The possibilities are endless!

This strategic approach using freely available open source software, as well as other 3rd party applications is a necessary component of web design, search engine optimization and interactive marketing.

Adam Barlam

Barlam Enterprises LLC

Arizona Web Design