Google Analytics

mrrobertstv · #1 (**permalink**) 06-10-2006, 01:00 AM

I just received my invitation to Google Analytics, what a robust program, I can pinpoint stats down to an individual city in any given country in the world. If a user logs onto the site I am able to see what keywords are working and how many return visitors I have on any particular day… Has anyone else tried this new service I would love to hear your thoughts.

cheamus · #2 (**permalink**) 06-10-2006, 07:44 AM

Its pretty neat in that respect, allright.

cyanide · #3 (**permalink**) 06-10-2006, 02:38 PM

Moved to analytics forum...

I agree it's a very robust program.
My only question, is how accurate is it?

I have a client's site using Google Analytics and Urchin. Urchin is showing approximately 40% more visitors.

It could be that GA is using a javascript tag, rather than analyzing the logs as Urchin does

**brian.mark** · #4 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 10:51 AM

Only 40% more? Wow... we see it missing a lot more than that. It tracks less than 1 in 10 sales for us and misses a ton of visitors. I still use it to get a snapshot, but I don't rely on it for making decisions about our business. For that, I use our overpriced analytics tools.

Brian.

cyanide · #5 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian.mark

Only 40% more? Wow... we see it missing a lot more than that. It tracks less than 1 in 10 sales for us and misses a ton of visitors. I still use it to get a snapshot, but I don't rely on it for making decisions about our business. For that, I use our overpriced analytics tools

LOL
It might be more for other months, I just happened to check one month only.

I agree about using it as a snapshot -you can't beat some of the drill-down it uses

pablowerk · #6 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 05:16 PM

I have just started Google Analytics too and have also noticed that it "misses" a lot of traffic. It appears to be averaging around 60-70% of the total traffic.

oomwrtu · #7 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 09:06 PM

This might have just answered my question. Since the tracking is done via JavaScript, this means it can't determine when any one of the SE spiders reaches my site, correct? Does anyone have any suggestions for good, free analytics software?

jordanmcclements · #8 (**permalink**) 06-13-2006, 08:40 AM

One thing it has told me that Awstats would not, is that over 80% of users to my site have Cable/DSL or faster connections. 13% are on Dial up. I am not sure how they work this figure out - but I assume it is fairly accurate?

I dont feel so bad now about how slow my pages are to load for modem users (Sorry modem users).

NB - Awstats says that 75% of users have IE, whereas Google Analytics says that only 54% of users have IE. Is this figure swayed in any way by Google's anti MS feelings?

cyanide · #9 (**permalink**) 06-13-2006, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oomwrtu

Does anyone have any suggestions for good, free analytics software?

Awstats is one of the better free ones out there.
Most hosting providers have it

funlounge · #10 (**permalink**) 06-15-2006, 05:34 PM

Checking the Search engines usually does not require analytics...
All you need is a free counter service such as Statcounter or the free stats from your webhost..

Analytics are more targeted at optimizing content, seeing what's selling and what's not, what is your visitor's path, etc..

Quote:

Originally Posted by oomwrtu

This might have just answered my question. Since the tracking is done via JavaScript, this means it can't determine when any one of the SE spiders reaches my site, correct? Does anyone have any suggestions for good, free analytics software?

oomwrtu · #11 (**permalink**) 06-15-2006, 10:09 PM

Alright, thanks for clearing that up. I went to my hosting provider and it turns out they do have a version of Awstats.

funlounge, I just meant knowing when my site has been crawled (last crawl time, how many pages). I explored Awstats and have found out how to see which keywords bring in the most traffic, just not how to see hits from spiders.

**brian.mark** · #12 (**permalink**) 06-15-2006, 10:18 PM

The simplest way, if it doesn't have a bots report (spiders / bots / whatever) is to look at a user-agent report. I haven't used awstats in a while, so I don't remember exactly what it's called in there.

Brian.

Webnauts · #13 (**permalink**) 07-10-2006, 10:07 AM

We have a Google analytics account and also AWStats installed on our server.

We discontinued using the Google Analytics account, while the JavaScript had warnings, which we do not tollerate in any case on our web site.

johnpwooton · #14 (**permalink**) 07-12-2006, 08:43 PM

I use statcounter in mine only because I don't have to track any transactions for my clients.