Hi, I have different website statistics on Awstats that are installed directly on my host and on Google Analytics. Which one is correct?
They both are. But they are telling you different things. Awstats is reporting on everything that hits the server, every bot, every dynamic IP - the lot. GA is telling you what has called up a page, visitors that generated a visit by calling up the pixel embedded in the code. GA will always be a smaller number because it filters out more chaff. It is the more accurate representation of human traffic to your site.
yep! the same thing i noticed to getclicky! they report 4 unique visitors if i visit that website four times in a day!
I prefer to use Google Analytics, but you can use the one you like the most - as long as you don't try to, say, compare visits between them, since that will most likely give different results. Both are good for spotting trends though. Still, Google Analytics would be my recommendation.
I use both Google Analytics and Clicky. I like the long term value Google Analytics brings to the equation if I decide to sell one of my sites -- seems to be a requirement these days. Clicky is great because is gives you a real time view of what is going on while the visitor is on your site. You can learn a lot by watching
Don't be so quick to throw Awstats away. Awstats to Google Analytics, is like a flathead screwdriver to a phillips (cross) screwdriver.
I say neither I use statcounter. Google analytics is great, but I just feel the less google knows about me and my business the better these days. Ever since I moved to China where they partnered with the government to censor results, and then pulled out only after being hacked (by the Chinese govt. no doubt) who shortly thereafter claimed that Google was a CIA asset, and the fact that google overreacted and pulled out of their whole country may give some credence to the Chinese's assertion.
We use both because they provide different information, but i really like getclicky because they are real time stats. So you can use them to see the exact time that someone is on your site.
I like using GA as the graphical representation is easier to understand, after using it for a couple of days.
GA is pretty clean, awstats is more detailed but looks cluttered. I used to like Awstats better for the extra details but realized GA is better as it filters out the crap and useless info
GA is more user friendly, while a awstats seems to be more geeky. I think nevertheless it is good to have them both...you could compare and cross related certain trends.
GA is the best tool but still it is also not perfect in giving the exact data. One thing is that GA is user friendly and we can get data for/from any parameter.
I read somewhere that google sees through analytics your bounce rate and visitor time on site. If your time on site is under 30 seconds and bounce rate above 70% Google will penalize your site for not providing enough value to visitors. Google wants to end the search for his customer with the perfect site. You can check piwik - great opensource alternative to google analytics. Statcounter is also great (you can have 500 impressions free lifetime - if you want more you have to upgrade).