Never really understood what caused a bad request or bad URL hit, but I assume it's not good. So my question is, how many is normal? Since it registers as bad hits, is this just blocked or bad bots, or am I losing readers that can't connect? My stats say I have 4.5k of bad hits out of 125k. Doesn't look normal to me. Any help?
Mmm a 3.6% is a high percentage. Look at your log files and search for 40x errors (or maybe 50x errors). Maybe you're getting 404 errors because you didn't uploaded your favicon.ico file, or your robots.txt. Here is a brief explanation for those errors: Error 4xx, 5xx The 4xx codes are intended for cases in which the client seems to have erred, and the 5xx codes for the cases in which the server is aware that the server has erred. Bad request 400 The request had bad syntax or was inherently impossible to be satisfied. Unauthorized 401 The parameter to this message gives a specification of authorization schemes which are acceptable. The client should retry the request with a suitable Authorization header. PaymentRequired 402 The parameter to this message gives a specification of charging schemes acceptable. The client may retry the request with a suitable ChargeTo header. Forbidden 403 The request is for something forbidden. Authorization will not help. Not found 404 The server has not found anything matching the URI given Internal Error 500 The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request. Not implemented 501 The server does not support the facility required. Service temporarily overloaded 502 The server cannot process the request due to a high load (whether HTTP servicing or other requests). The implication is that this is a temporary condition which maybe alleviated at other times. Gateway timeout 503 This is equivalent to Internal Error 500, but in the case of a server which is in turn accessing some other service, this indicates that the respose from the other service did not return within a time that the gateway was prepared to wait. As from the point of view of the clientand the HTTP transaction the other service is hidden within the server, this maybe treated identically to Internal error 500, but has more diagnostic value.
A favicon is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage, and should be placed in the root directory of a webserver. Look here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon