Stats Analysis - Log Files

[ephricon]

Okay I admit it - I spend lots of time on SEO to get high rankings but I do a very poor job of looking and tracking my sites actual traffic.

I host my sites with a good hosting company who I really like - but their web-based stats program (LiveStats 5.0) doesn't impress me. They don't have a "unique visitors" stat which is something I hold in high regard.

Anyone know of a good program I can download on my local machine and then download the log files and use the software to analyze them? I was referred AWStats but I don't want to mess with installing Perl or anything else that sounds technical in any way!

[digitalpoint]

I use WebTrends on a Windows machine, you schedule it to pull logs remotely (FTP, HTTP, etc.) and it builds the reports and it can email them to you, save them locally or upload them to your web server.

I like it, especially as far as non-web based stats analysis programs.

- Shawn

[ephricon]

Yeah I've heard good things about WebTrends. I'm hoping not to shell out too much $$$ though at least right now. Anyone know of any free or inexpensive (50 bucks or less - maybe a bit more if its real solid) program???

[TechEvangelist]

A couple of nice Windows freebies are:

Funnel Web at http://www.quest.com/funnel_web/analyzer/

and

WebLog Expert Lite at http://www.weblogexpert.com/lite.htm

WebLog Expert Lite is more intuitive and easier to use. Each gives you slightly different views of the log data.

I've used WebTrends and it is indeed the Cadillac, but they also want a Cadillac price for it.

Craig

[mcdar]

I use WebLog Expert and I love it!

Caryl

[dave487]

Is there a free web based alternative to Weblog? I would like to avoid downloading my 30Mb log files if possible.

[mcdar]

You do not need to download your logs for Weblog Expert. You just put in the url, username, and password and it will access the info from your server.

[SEbasic]

The new version of LiveStats is incredible. Complete graphical analysis of Global positions of site visitors, Detailed analysis of referal queries etc. Incredible. I suggest that you ask your Hosting company if they plan on upgrading in the future. Seriously, This is one of the best examples of Log analysis that I have ever seen!

This is not a plug, I truly believe that this is one of the most important software upgrades that any hosting company could make. Highly recommended!