comparing analytics software

marthrock · 12-19-2006, 06:43 AM

If one were using Googles Urchin for instance, as well as Webtrends, with the code dropped in all of the same places, would the metrics be exactly the same? In other words do each analytics provider look at a unique the same way? We're doing a compare and contrast with these 2 as well as another and the numbers do not match up. What gives?

marthrock · 12-20-2006, 07:37 AM

Simply put, do all analytics/web traffic programs look at the date the same way? Is a Unique or a returning visitor the same regardless of who you use?

cynovatron · 12-20-2006, 11:55 AM

I am using statcounter, sitemeter, performancing metrics and google analytics... the numbers are slightly different... but then again, for analysis of stats, i think it is the relative value that is important

i don't really care how many visitors i get this week, as long as i'm doing better than last week, i'm happy! ;P

Forsh · 12-20-2006, 03:31 PM

How does awstats rank up against those programs for tracking site statistics?

imaginemn · 12-20-2006, 04:22 PM

There are too many factors that would result in the data not being exact. For example. The timestamp on the configurations. Are they both setup the same? If Urchin is setup on eastern and webtrends is setup for western. You would have some users on one day and other on another day. Another factor could be that Urchin uses javascript. So any users browsing w/javascript disabled would not be tracked on urchin because javascript is NOT a server side scripting language and the code would not be executed. You could run into server timeouts, javascript errors or other issues.

The reporting software is mostly to get a general idea. What really matters is not the number of hits/users, it's the number of sales. If sales are low, these reports should give you enough data to make adjustments to increase your sales or traffic depending on your needs.

I've used many differnt web stats software and they all provide different value. One isn't necessarily better than the other. However, some reports are easier to read than others but all the data is pretty much the same as long as you know what the numbers mean.

marthrock · 12-21-2006, 07:33 AM

Thats interesting about a) the time stamp and b) the javascript. The main reason I ask is that Urchin is tracking conversions as its related to sales and its not matching up what we're showing for sales internally. As well we are running Urchin vs. Statcounter and the latter is showing more uniques than the former???