Logfile Analysis

In this approach a server log or a log file is automatically created and maintained by the servers. For example the visitor information , IP address , referrer etc is stored in the log files and a statistical analysis of the server log can help in understanding the traffic patterns by time of day, day of week, referrer etc. Web site optimization, fine tuning of sales effort can be achieved by effective analysis of these log files.
Historically this was popular as server logs was readily available and so the site owners just had to buy a software which reads the log files and analyze them and generates report out of it.