I’ve now had Google Analytics tracking my sites for a month seven months a year over two years now. What do I think of Google Analytics? I love all of the graphs and maps they provide, however, the numbers I’m receiving are different than Awstats and Webalizer. In fact, they’re showing a lower number of visitors.

Today’s Lesson
Upon researching why Google Analytics is reporting lower numbers, it could be that the reader has JavaScript, cookies and/or images disabled. I’ve also noticed that Google Analytics, Awstats and Webalizer are updated at different times of the day, which would make for a slight difference in the daily numbers. Will I get hung up on the actual numbers? No. I’ll watch for the trend, and hopefully continue to see an increase in my visitor counts.

Will I continue to use Google Analytics? Yes. I’ll compare Google Analytics to Awstats and Webalizer, as each statistic reporting service has features that I like, so I’ll leave all of them in place.

My visitor counts are up approximately 50% from last month (my first month of blogging), so if that trend continues, six months from now, I should have a well visited site. Patience is paying off as I continue to post. UPDATE: My blog has continued to grow at a good pace.

From many hours of research, I have found that the authors of many of the successful blogs, are in it for the long haul. A great blog doesn’t happen overnight, therefore, it appears perseverance and dedication to providing valuable content, are one of the keys to success in blogging.

For me, I’m very thankful for all of my readers who are returning and/or subscribing to my blog. Hopefully I’m providing valuable information, as that’s my intention.

UPDATE: I continue to keep all of my statistical programs in place. Even though they do continue to give me different numbers, I like the fact they all give different features that prove to be great for analysis.

Today’s Assignment

Check the statistical programs you have in place.

Are the numbers different?

Which of the numbers do you trust?

What are your statistics telling you?

Please note: This article was written shortly after I started blogging and I was questioning the difference between Google Analytics, Webalizer and AwStats. I now have a new post which describes what I’ve learned from comparing statistics and what questions we can ask ourselves based on what our stats are showing us. The new article is titled, “How To Capitalize On Your Blog Statistics”.