Website statistics packages
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- John Hodgkinson
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 421
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- Retired, but build and run websites for organisations of school leaders and others - e.g. http://www.icponline.org, http://www.aspa.asn.au, http://www.appa.asn.au
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Currently, for my websites, I am using the Webalizer statistics package provided with cpanel by my server hosting company. But I now want to be able to provide a way for my "clients" to view their website's statistics online.
I have tried Google Analytics, but I don't like it at all. I see that RocketTheme uses Woopra, but it is still in beta and allows only one website per invitation.
What do other people use and are happy with and which give an accurate picture of website traffic?
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- Ragdata
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 614
- Thanks: 0
- Software Engineer
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Wow - what don't you like about Google Analytics John? I've started turning ALL of my customers onto it.
I think it gives amazing insight into traffic sources. - Ragdata's Rubber Duck
www.ragdata.net/
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- John Hodgkinson
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 421
- Thanks: 0
- Retired, but build and run websites for organisations of school leaders and others - e.g. http://www.icponline.org, http://www.aspa.asn.au, http://www.appa.asn.au
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It provides excellent graphics, that's true.
There is a great disparity between the stats given by GA and by Webalizer - huge differences - with GA always much, much lower. So either I have not installed GA properly, or one of the packages is giving false readings.
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- Ragdata
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 614
- Thanks: 0
- Software Engineer
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Definately know where you're coming from - I've noticed the same thing.
I would imagine it's because Webalizer is a Web Log Analyzer ... so every single page, every single image, every single JScript counts as a 'hit'. I chose GA specifically so I wouldn't have to wade through what is essentially erroneous data (with respect to what I'm really interested in). - Ragdata's Rubber Duck
www.ragdata.net/
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- John Hodgkinson
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 421
- Thanks: 0
- Retired, but build and run websites for organisations of school leaders and others - e.g. http://www.icponline.org, http://www.aspa.asn.au, http://www.appa.asn.au
- Yep, the numbers of hits are for advertising people, aren't they? I use the numbers of visits and bandwidth amount mainly. It also shows the most popular bits of the website.
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- Ragdata
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 614
- Thanks: 0
- Software Engineer
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I'm not sure the numbers of hits get used by anyone really. Bandwidth of course is something you want to keep your customers informed of accurately. I suppose what I'm really interested in - and why GA appeals to me so much - is how my SEO performance is going.
Because it's a log analyser though, Webalyzer and its kin also report things like the hundreds (an understatement most days) of brute-force attempts suffered by most websites every day. Mind you - I'm only assuming it's most sites ... perhaps just it's just my sites ...
This is just one more reason I like GA - the stats relate only to the pages I'm interested in tracking. I can perfectly understand this being a down-side in someone else's eyes though.
Anyway, I'll stop hijacking your thread now
- Ragdata's Rubber Duck
www.ragdata.net/
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- John Hodgkinson
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 421
- Thanks: 0
- Retired, but build and run websites for organisations of school leaders and others - e.g. http://www.icponline.org, http://www.aspa.asn.au, http://www.appa.asn.au
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No worries! I've had marketing people try to sell me their packages using the numbers of hits generated - that's why I'm wary of both hit rates and marketing people. :cheesy:
And my sites are almost entirely for associations who are not trying to increase their membership size (already have all their target audiences), so SEO is not such a big deal for the sites.
Don't worry about hijacking - our discussion might have helped people decide whether the stats package they use would be suitable for me.
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