Google Analytics vs Awstats vs Webalizer
I’ve now had Google Analytics tracking my sites for a month over seven months a year 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?
Posted on May 30, 2007
Filed Under Archives, Blogging Lessons, Stats |
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I have the same problem, my Google analytics account is showing approximately half as many visitors than awstats does. I don’t know which one is right. My site usually shows 3000 visits a month with awstats. Now I have started using analytics it shows about 1500 a month. I hope awstats is right.
Ben
Hi Ben,
Welcome to my blog!
Unfortunately, you can run many stats programs, and get different results. I continue to watch for growth.
AWStats is my first choice for stats, however, I have Google Analytics and others in place, as each gives me different bits and pieces of information that I find helpful.
BTW: I checked out you website. How fascinating, informative and educational. And….such beautiful pictures. Great idea!
I also installed Google Analytics for my site http://www.bionixwallpaper.com/index.html and I have the same problem. Maybe it is because of the content of my web site?
Hi Marcel,
Welcome to BWAB.
I think it helps to use more than one stats program, as they all report the numbers differently.
[...] spent too much time checking my visitor stats when I should have been concentrating on other areas of [...]
The difference between AWStats/Webalizer and Google Analytics is that the former analyse the raw web server logs, whereas GA uses client-side JavaScript (via a relatively modern web-browser) to gather it’s data. This means the log analysers will always show higher figures as there are hits GA will never know about.
That doesn’t mean GA is inaccurate, it’s just showing different information. GA is a beautiful product, the presentation of information is sublime.
Maybe you’d like to have a look at my JAWStats project (http://www.jawstats.com). It takes AWStats information and presents it in a more modern format. GA it ain’t, but it is - in my opinion - a nicer interface than that generated by AWStats.