In this edition of WWYSYDH we explore Google Analytics
In short, Analytics provides anonymous tracking and reporting of site visitors and how they interact with your website.
Assuming you look at what it's tracking, you can gather neat insights, trends, and answers. This can help with your marketing strategies or just make you feel more/less popular.
I have little experience with the wide range of free and pay stats programs, so I'm not going to compare them. At any rate, we use Analytics at OC because it's likely the most simple, yet advanced, free tracking program currently available.
Some unique or key features:
Overlay Example
- People use the "Back to top" links at the bottom of the page, even on short pages.
- Josie is more popular than me :(
John, that's a good point. Here's a blog post discussing the disparity between what Google Analytics reports and what raw server stats produce. There's also a discussion at Web Master World about the differences between Google Analytics and the various other statistics tools. Bottom line is that no web statistics are perfect. If you want to achieve the best approximation, use several tools, account for outliers and anomalies then average the results.
Ah ha, my first blog challenge.
I'd say it's hard to argue one package is more accurate than another. They're all computer programs, so if functioning correctly they should do as directed. I'd suggest the difference in assumptions made by the stats packages should explain much of the difference.
I stick by my claim of limited expertise in web stats. For demonstration purposes I took another look at Analytics and Awstats and John is correct about pretty large discrepancies. However, these should be explained by a number of factors, like:
More on Google Analytics vs. Awstats
When absolute numbers are needed it seems wise to investigate exactly how the program is deriving the numbers and go with the package that matches what you're looking to convey with those numbers.
As they say, "Lies, damned lies, and statistics".
"Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable." - Mark Twain
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Google Analytics doesn't match server level statistics by a wide margin. It's great with the small flaw that it's highly inaccurate.