Examining server access logs to see exactly how search engine crawlers interact with a site.
ID
SS-DF-044
Confidence
High · 85
Evidence
Established
Updated
2026-07-08
Definition
Examining server access logs to see exactly how search engine crawlers interact with a site.
Log file analysis inspects raw server logs to reveal precisely which URLs crawlers requested, when, how often and with what status codes, using ground-truth data rather than estimates. It exposes crawl-budget waste, uncrawled sections, excessive hits on low-value URLs and error patterns that other tools cannot see. For large sites it is one of the most reliable ways to diagnose crawling and indexing problems and to verify that fixes have taken effect.