Reading reports

Drupal automatically generates a number of reports for content administrators. Administrators can use these reports with their other administrative privileges to improve visitors' experience.

By default, content administrators will see the following reports:

• Recent log messages - a filterable log of all activity on your site.
• Broken links - a list of all broken links on your site.
• Fields used in views - this report is only useful if you have more than one site and you want to export views from one site into another.
• Top 'access denied' errors - if a visitor user tries to go to an administration page they're not allowed to see (either by clicking a link or typing it in manually), they get a "403: access denied" error. This report shows which URLs were requested when a visitor got an access denied error.
• Top 'page not found' errors - when other websites have broken links to your website, visitors who click on the link get a "404: page not found" error. This report shows which URLs were requested when a visitor got a page not found error.
• Top search phrases - when a user uses the search box on your site, their search is logged in this report.

Fixing Broken Links

If you make a typo when creating a link, or if the address of a page you are linking to changes, you will end up with a broken link. Broken links frustrate users and bring down your search engine rankings, so they're a good thing to fix right away.

Drupal automatically scans through all it's pages to determine if there are any broken links. If there are, it reports them in the Broken link report. It's good to check the Broken link report every few weeks.

If Drupal does discover a broken link, it displays a table with the broken address, the error code ("response") and error message, provides a link to edit the page (Eedit node x), and a link to permanently ignore the broken link (Edit link settings).

Note that, for technical reasons, the report is not able tell you exactlywhere on the page the broken link is.

Ideally, get the author of the page to fix the problem... in most cases, they will probably have to search for the page they were linking to a second time, and it will be easier for them to know if they found the correct page.

Note: content authors and content administrators actually get a broken link report of pages they wrote/own. It appears as one of the tab on their user profile page (nearby the tab they use to change their password).

Interpreting Top Search Phrases

When a visitor searches for something, it usually means that they weren't able to find it (or recognize it) where they expected it to be. If you find a large number of searches for the same thing, try one of the steps below. If, after a few weeks, the number of searches hasn't changed significatnly, try another.

• if the page already has a menu item:
• consider changing the menu link text to make that word/phrase more prominent
• consider moving the menu item higher in the menu (i.e.: out of a sub-menu)
• otherwise:
• consider linking to it from your front page
• consider creating a block in the sidebar that links to it

One important thing to note is that you won't be able to eliminate these searches completely. Some people remember how they found something previously, and will take the same steps to find it, even if you put a big button right next to the search box. Other people navigate entirely by searching. Also keep in mind that you can't tell whether or not all the searches were performed by the same user... a single interested–but–not–technically–savvy user may be the only one searching.

Note that some really–not–technically–savvy users cannot tell the difference between your website's search, their web browser and their preferred search engine. If you find searches for "Google", "Yahoo", "Bing" or things totally unrelated to your website, ignore them.

Another consideration to keep in mind is that it might not be worth cluttering up your front page, menu or sidebar with more stuff. Menus often don't have much room to expand, and it's not worth hiring a graphic designer to re-arrange the menu on the page to fit more top-level things. Similarly, putting everything on one page will confuse users and make things harder to find.

Here's an example of how you can use the Top Search Phrases report to help your users find what they're looking for:

You have a site that recieves about 100 visitors each week. You discover that, 15—25 times each week, visitors search for the phrase "events". You already have an events listing, but it's called "Calendar" in the menu. You change the "Calendar" menu link text to "Events" from the menu administration page. You notice that the number of searches for "events" per week decreases to 1—3. At this point, cluttering up your already–busy front page is not worth it, so you leave it as-is.

Fixing Page not Found errors

Page not found errors (also called "404 errors" by web administrators) usually happen when someone clicks an old link from another website, or someone visits an old bookmark. They can also happen if someone tries to guess the address of a page on your website (instead of clicking on a link or menu item) in the hope that it will save some time.

Note: launching a new website where an old website used to be and changing URL alias patterns will cause the addresses of some or all pages on the site to change. You will get lots of 404 errors from search engines before they're able to re-crawl your site, which will take a few days.

Note: some spammers will try to visit pages that don't exist on your website. Often they will be random sets of letters and numbers (like "eepe1Eex") or have spammy names (like "rolex-watches"). You can ignore these.

Note: to improve the speed that pages load, Drupal will create files that start with "sites/default/files/css" and "sites/default/files/js". Every so often, Drupal has to re-build them. In some circumstances after a re-build, visitors will get 404 errors when they try to reload the page. For this reason, you can ignore 404 errors that start with those strings.

Note: certain web browsers are set up to automatically (i.e.: without any person telling them to) ask your site for files that might not exist. Most-frequently, these files are "favicon.ico" and "apple-touch-icon.png". You can ignore these 404 errors.

If you find that a large number of people are getting 404 errors when trying to find a certain piece of content, here are some steps you can take to improve their experience on your website:

1. Determine if there is a broken link on a page on your website.
2. Set up a URL redirect from the path that doesn't work to the path that does work.

Note: in most cases, when you change the title of a page on your site, the web address for that page changes. However, Drupal is set up to automatically create a URL redirect in this circumstance.

Note: if you're launching a new website where an old website used to be, PeaceWorks can set up URL redirects from the pages on the old site to the pages on the new site to save you time. Keep in mind that we're not as familiar with the pages you created on your old and new websites, so you'll need to provide us with a mapping a few days before your new site goes live.

Access Denied errors

Access denied errors (called "403 errors" by web administrators) happen when a user requests the address of a page that they're not allowed to see. Most of the time, this happens because someone with a user account on your website forgets to log in.

However, if you notice a large number of Access Denied errors, someone may be trying to figure out a way to get into your site without your authorization. If you suspect this is happening, notify PeaceWorks immediately. We will need to work with you to block that person from accessing the site.

Reading Recent Log Messages

The recent log messages report shows a detailed report of activity on the website. The other reports are created from the data in this report. Some of the things it tracks are:

• who logs in when
• who updates which pages
• who changes meta tags when
• when someone sends something with the contact form
• when Drupal does some self-maintenence
• searches
• 404 and 403 errors

If you're interested in a certain event, you can click on it to find more information.