Watching the numbers
I 'run the numbers' at the end of every month, to see how traffic was at our website. Its fun, and I always try to dig a little deeper to see if the numbers mean anything. Using Google Analytics has increased my fun. I still use FastStats to crank thru the log-files for additional detail.
Here's the thing, using an unnamed online directory (as this is a common problem):
Clicks the directory has recorded going to my website: 48
Referrals counted by log files: 39
Referrals counted by Analytics: 35
I know there are reasons why each number is different, but which is the number I should track?
Seems this always comes with the directory showing a higher number, in one case almost 4x higher. Phooey to all those who say that web traffic is measurable!
Which leaves me to quote Mark Twain (or Segal, or someone else)..."A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."
3 Comments:
At January 03, 2006 5:50 PM, Larry Hendrick said…
Well Dave, if you figure this one out, let me know. I have the same problems trying to sort out the numbers to something that is even akin to real.
At January 10, 2006 9:48 AM, Craig Killick said…
I use these stats:
http://www.hitslink.com/statistics-pricing.aspx
But from a UK company. I found the same problem with our web site stats: http://www.the-escape.co.uk/whitepaper/0509_webstats.asp
So we changed to these new stats. The difference is that you copy some script into every page so that when somebody views it, it sends the stats of. Made a massive difference as the stats are a lot more comprehensive also.
Our guys in the UK run a demo you can go through on their website:
http://www.webresultsdirect.com/site_measurement.html
At January 10, 2006 1:49 PM, Dave J. said…
Thanks Craig. The Google Analytics service is a 'client-side' tool like the one you are using. I've wanted to switch to such a service for a while, as I know the stats would be more accurate.
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