Why Are My Stats Different?
So, you’ve been looking at your website stats from your control panel. Then you decide to use something like Google Analytics or Statcounter to double check your traffic. After a few days, you check your stats and you almost have a heart attack. Your stats are down – seriously down. What happened to your visitors?
There are many reasons. You’ll probably never find any two statistics systems that what will report the exact same results.
One reason is because they collect data in different ways. AWstats or any cpanel logs use server logs whereas Google Analytics or other system where you insert a javascript code into your template is browser based. Which means if a browser has turned off Javascript that could affect Analytics too.That takes out a small number right off the bat.
Also the way they count visitors are different especially when you have fancy ‘ajax’ stuff or iframes. Let’s say you have a frame on a page when you load that page I believe GA counts that as one view but any cpanel based stats will count that as two one for the page and one for the iframe.
Third, some server logs count crawlers and bots as views. So you get your page viewed even though it’s not a real person but a bot. Another thing, GA uses cookies which can be deleted by the visitor.
There’s no clear answer I suppose. The best thing is to use both, and watch the trends and growth as opposed to hard numbers.
Photo by Wagner MagniDo You Want A Hands-Free Business?
Then get this guide to help you systemize your business so you'll have more time working on your business.
Hey! I want to make sure you know what you're getting here. In addition to the guide, you will also receive our memo that includes special offers, announcements and of course actionable information.
somehow my comment got garbled, maybe you can delete it and keep this one in place. It should read like this:
.
“GA uses cookies which can be deleted by the visitor”
As most websites and blogs that want to sell something, do not rely on repeat visitors, this statistic is not of a high importance. One website i run (a niche business directory) I have very few returning visitors, as when the visitor finds a business partner via my directory he is happy for a long time (usually).
.
“Your stats are down – seriously down”
If the remaining stats just show the meat, everything is OK.
I am most interested in the number of unique visitors and the actions (sales / adclicks) resulting from them.
.
“watch the trends and growth”
Nothing to add on this
.
Tom
Hey Tom, great insights. Thanks for sharing!
Yes, while repeat visitor info may or may not be important to the owner, it does explain the overall traffic difference.
somehow my comment got garbled, maybe you can delete it and keep this one in place. It should read like this:
.
“GA uses cookies which can be deleted by the visitor”
As most websites and blogs that want to sell something, do not rely on repeat visitors, this statistic is not of a high importance. One website i run (a niche business directory) I have very few returning visitors, as when the visitor finds a business partner via my directory he is happy for a long time (usually).
.
“Your stats are down – seriously down”
If the remaining stats just show the meat, everything is OK.
I am most interested in the number of unique visitors and the actions (sales / adclicks) resulting from them.
.
“watch the trends and growth”
Nothing to add on this
.
Tom
Hey Tom, great insights. Thanks for sharing!
Yes, while repeat visitor info may or may not be important to the owner, it does explain the overall traffic difference.