I've been using AWstats for awhile and have been very happy
with
it. It uses the server logs so there no need to rely on
users
enabling cookies (which Google Analytics uses). The more
you look at
web stats in general the more you realize how very difficult
it is to
actually extract useful information about who and how users
are
viewing your site, but I think AWstats does a pretty
reliable job.
Hits are essentially useless, as they only tell you every
time a
request as been made to your server that doesn't tell you
anything
about your users. Actually looking at visit-time from
specific IPs
is when you start to get something you can use. Additionally
webspiders and spambots (provided you're not on an intranet
that
firewalls these) can really have an effect your stats.
AWstats
handles all of this nicely and I find it is rather
conservative in
calculating 'visits', so you get a pretty honest picture of
how your
site is running.
And of course there's nothing stopping anyone from running
multiple
statistics services, you are bound to get rather different
results
from each so it can't hurt to compare GA to AWstats to
Webtrends, etc.
Also I want to second the opinion that you shouldn't be
using a host
that doesn't provide statistics and useful tools, there's
great,
reliable hosting out there for as little as $7 a month so
even cost
shouldn't be an issue, and most should make transferring
your domain
pretty easy too.
--Will
At 01:43 PM 4/25/2007, Andrew Hankinson wrote:
>You can usually set an exception list in stats packages
that do not
>count hits that come from a certain IP or range of IP
addresses. I
>did this at a former place of employment (a University)
where we
>wanted to track on- and off-campus hits separately. So,
you would set
>up your stats package to ignore (or, potentially, track
separately)
>your hits from internal addresses.
>
>I'd also like to throw a word in to this discussion for
AWstats as a
>stats package - it's Open Source and maintained fairly
frequently.
>You don't even have to have it installed on the web
server, as long as
>you can get the (appropriately formatted) server logs
for your domain
>from your network guys. You can run it on an in-house
machine, feed
>it log files every day / week / month, and it will
process those and
>give you a comprehensive array of statistics. It works
with both
>Apache and IIS if you're one of those unfortunate people
who don't run
>Apache. ;)
>
>Andrew
>
>On 4/25/07, Glory MacIntyre <gmacintyre summer.com> wrote:
>>I am very interested in this tool as well. Our
library is going to be
>>launching a new site and would like to keep detailed
statistics of the
>>usage. The only problem is that our web site host
does not provide usage
>>statistics. Currently we use a link that accesses an
image on a BCLA server.
>>They keep general stats on our website that way.
>>
>>I noticed Google analytics shows the locations of
who is accessing the page.
>>We don't want to count the initial hit that is
generated when users log on
>>to the public internet computers since our homepage
is set to our library
>>website. How do other libraries handle this?
>>
>>Thanks and have a great day!
>>Glory
>>Penticton Public Library
>>www.library.penticton.bc.ca
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
>>[mailto:web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf
Of Araby Y Greene
>>Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:46 PM
>>To: Valerie Reid; web4libwebjunction.org
>>Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Click Counters
>>
>>I added Google Analytics to our main web site this
semester to see what
>>we get compared to WebTrends. It's free, but you
need to get a Google
>>account, and must add Google's
"Urchin_Tracker" script to each page you
>>want to track.
>>
>>Adding the script is easy if your pages have an
included footer file.
>>Put it in the footer and you're done. If you have
some pages that do not
>>use your standard footer, or pages that should not
be tracked, they need
>>to be dealt with separately. If you don't use a
footer "include," you
>>might be able to use search and replace to stuff
the code above the
>>body tag on each page.
>>
>>The data can viewed on the Analytics site or
downloaded in Excel format
>>for whatever time period you designate. You can
allow other library
>>staff members to view the data.
>>
>>http://www.google.co
m/analytics/
>>
>>
>>-araby
>>
>>__________________________
>>Araby Greene
>>Web Development Librarian
>>Getchell Library/322
>>University of Nevada, Reno
>>http://www.library.unr.ed
u/
>>
>>arabyunr.edu
>>775.682-5678
>>
>> /|
>> 'o.O'
>> =(___)=
>> U
>>ACK! THPTPHH!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-
>> > > bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf
Of Valerie Reid
>> > Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 11:57 AM
>> > To: web4libwebjunction.org
>> > Subject: [Web4lib] Click Counters
>> >
>> > Greetings:
>> >
>> > Our library web site is part of the larger
hospital web site, and
>>because
>> > of
>> > this, we are seriously limited as to the type
of statistics that we
>>have
>> > access to. In essence, I can find out how
many hits or visits on
>>about 15
>> > of our primary web pages. However, we have a
total of about 300-400
>>web
>> > pages, and can get no statistics on any of the
rest of our pages.
>> >
>> > A few years ago, we implemented Click Manager
as a way to count
>>internet
>> > traffic to some of our web pages. This is a
free package whereby I
>>imbed
>> > the specific Click Manager code into the URL
and it tracks how many
>>times
>> > a
>> > user goes from a web page to another web
page.
>> >
>> > We just discovered that there is no newer
version of Click Manager,
>>and
>> > that
>> > the older version is no longer supported.
>> >
>> > Does anyone have a recommendation for a
similar product? Free or very
>>low
>> > cost would be ideal. Thanks in advance.
>> >
>> > Valerie Reid
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Valerie L. Reid
>> >
--------------------------------------------------------
>> > Webmaster / Senior Information Resource
Specialist
>> > Henry Ford Hospital
>> > Sladen Library & Center for Health
Information Resources
>> > 2799 West Grand Blvd.
>> > Detroit, MI 48202
>> >
>> > 313/916-2550
>> > 313/874-4730 FAX
>> >
>> > vreid1sladen.hfhs.org
>> > http://www.henryford.
com/sladen
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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====================
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