Log Evidence
Also known as: Server log data, Request log evidence
What a raw server request log proves: that a request reached a recorded URL and received a recorded status. Nothing more.
Log evidence is the record of requests hitting a server: timestamp, requested URL, method, status, user agent claim, and address. It is first-party data, it covers every client rather than only search engines, and it exists whether or not any analytics package was installed.
It is the earliest evidence available about a new property, and on this portfolio it is the primary discovery signal.
The limit is strict and worth repeating. A server request proves a request reached a URL. It does not prove indexing, a search, an AI prompt, a citation, training use, a human reader, or a ranking effect. Each of those needs its own evidence. Treating a log line as proof of use is the most common overreach in crawler analysis.