I compared the traffic stats on the same site using google analytics, webalizer, awstats and extremetracking... The results differ a lot so I'm wondering which one is showing the most reliable stats. I suppose that should be google but who knows.... ??? For instance, analytics is showing around 100 uniques and webalizer 500+ !?
Analytics is java right (I don't use it, but I assume so), therefore it wouldn't count browsers with java disabled or any bots, spiders, etc. like some tracking programs. Pretty sure awstats is the industry standard.
Yes it is. I like Analytics for a lot of the features it offers but "accurate" visitor count is not one of them. I have heard because it is Java that there could be issues but I am far from an expert. Looking into Awstats now. My host gives one called BBClone - anyone use it?
(it's javascript, not java, by the way) stats programs are only accurate when you compare their stats to stats made from the SAME program. no program is "innaccurate"-- they just work differently and count things differently. that being said, javascript trackers should be more akin to other js trackers and web server trackers should be more akin to other web server trackers, but that still doesn't mean they'll be the same. for some programs a "visitor" is a unique IP. for others it's one browsing session. if it's a session, the session can change from program to program. some programs will be configured to include the wrong things as pageviews. some include too few. some may not recognize php3, for example. others may count jpgs as "pages." you see where I'm getting with all of this?
Like disgust said, there is no "real" stats. Different programs have different ways of counting. The best thing you can do is know what is really being counted and know what matters to you. I like to use Google Analytics and it counts users who have JavaScript on. That's fine with me because my main sources of income are AdSense and YPN so only counting visitors who have JavaScript turned on is fine with me.
I used Google Analytics for a brief period of time and noticied the same errors you did. I'd now I should be getting more uniques yet my Google stat tracker would not show it. I don't recommend using it based on my experience.
all of the stats are real. they just don't report in the same way. they're relative to stats created by them previously, but they can't really be compared to other programs' results... at least not easily.
Had the same problem myself. Analytics and Adsense were showing different results for the same domain. After firing off an email to those helpful Google people, this is the reply I received.
I use statcounter and analytics....analytics has a lot of reports and features that you have to drill down to find....the stats they report are very similar....I've used counters before that counted robots as unique visitors.....I've also dealt with clients that thought every hit was an actual visitor...
Dosent matter which you use as mentioned they are all different but once you are using one you are comparing the data from last week/month with todays data using the same parameters hence it dont matter which one. Comparing stats from two different sources as mentioned though is not going to work well like comparing apples to oranges Analytics works well for me its simple but appears accurate from day to to day you said For instance, analytics is showing around 100 uniques and webalizer 500+ !? This is not possible period the difference is to great i would think you are comparing uniques to pages 1 to 5 difference over a period of time is not feasible if it was just a single day then maybe analytics was down
I can provide a screenshot if you like but yeah the difference is to great that is the reason I got confused...
i guess there is no clear cut best stat tracker out? everyone seems to like one or another. I'm using statscounter now. It's not the best but it gets the job done for me.