Web analysis or web log analysis is the process by which one finds out the typical usage of the internet for any given category of variables. It searches or “parses” the logs of popular servers to compile the data into useable, legible forms. This is necessarily done with computer software because the log is constructed of code that is not readable to the human and untrained eye and needs to be separated out and translated into useable information. The software that is used to do this is called a parser and is most often generated by another script that is called a parser generator. Multiple parsers are necessary as there are multiple forms or languages in which the web logs can be organized. So what kind of information can you gain with web analysis tools and why is it so essential for success in the internet marketing sector? All of the information that is gained is in terms of numbers of events that involve sites located on a particular server. This would include number of visitors, number of unique visitors, the days of the week and times of day for those visits, the links visited from that page, the search engines used, and the keywords/phrases that were used to get to that site. As you can imagine this is invaluable information when you are trying to market to a certain population if you know that populations tendencies on a huge scale. It is these trends that make internet marketing the “science” that it is. Imagine with me for a moment that you want to start to make money on the internet but you have no idea where to start. I would suggest that you start with some research which is smart in any area of business that you want to get into. The research in this case would be carried out by a parser, or web analysis tool. You can then find things out like the top 10 sales pages visited for the previous month, previous six months, previous year, etc. With this information you now have a good idea of what is selling on the internet. Now you need to know how to sell it right? Well with the same tool you can find out what pages were used most to sell/buy that product that you have chosen. You can also find out the keywords that were used and the search engines that ranked that site high. As you can see this is the very basis on which all of internet marketing is built on. Knowledge in this industry is power and web analysis is how you get this power. There are many tools each with there pros and cons. Try them out (many have a trial period) and find which you are most comfortable with and start making money!