[thelist] PHP HTTP referrer processor ?

.jeff jeff at members.evolt.org
Tue Dec 10 05:59:00 CST 2002


phil,

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> From: Philip Lee
>
> > doesn't it make more sense to target commonly used
> > search terms that they *aren't* finding his site
> > with?
>
> True but the user feels that he can refine his meta
> tags by looking for the incidental words that users
> have used that have successfully located his site.
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my favorite kind of client -- the kind that think they know what they're
talking about ... but don't.

users aren't locating his site because his current meta tags are working to
generate relevance in search engine results.  they're finding his site
because the search engines are grading his content's relevance and it
happens to contain words people are searching for.

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> I've been presented with a MySQL table dump containg
> 300,000 HTTP referrers to wade through - he has no
> access to the raw server logs.
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ah, so this is something that's already been started and is being handed to
you to deal with -- yuck.

perhaps you can still get something like analog to parse this file.

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> Indeed, one of the other tasks was to identify the sites
> that are linking to his.
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this is by far the most important data contained in the data.

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> I totally agree - I was going to look at the linking
> sites as well and suggest reciprocal links, submit those
> to search engines etc.
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don't mess with submissions.  the good rankings will come from engines
finding you.  concentrate instead on links from other sites that are already
highly ranked for search terms you want to target.  this may or may not be
sites that are already in your referrer list.

does this sound like something i said earlier?  it should.  this data dump
is great for information about what you're doing right.  however, it doesn't
contain the information you need to know to fix what you're doing wrong or
areas that you can expand into.

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> And there lays the problem - no access to the raw logs
> just one huge MySQL table dump.
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sorry to say, but i think that the information you'll glean from this will
not be as useful or yield the results you (or the client) think it will.

i'd still suggest trying to run analog against it and seeing what that
generates.

good luck,

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/




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