Poll: What do you use for site analytics?
Right now, depending upon the site involved I use:
No site analytics at all.
Some of the sites I run are so small or for such a niche market that site analytics are a lot less important than other metrics. For instance, I care a lot less about how many people visit a photoblog that I run than I do about how much space is being used by the blog.
JavaScript or "bug" analytics.
These are packages like Sitemeter and Google analytics that work by putting a script or "bug" on each page to be tracked. These work great and give you lots of good information, but they only track the pages you mark. And some sites consider giving that data to Google or another company to be a security risk.
Basic Web log analytics.
These are tools like Analog that sit on your Web server and parse the Web log on a periodic basis. But most of the free ones I've tried either don't give me the information I want or don't have the reports I want.
Because of the various limitations of the tools I currently use, I am still looking for the perfect Web analytics solution for my needs. If I find it, I'll let you know. But for now, I'm curious what you use. This poll is fairly limited as there are hundreds of other options for Web log analysis out there. So if the solution you use isn't listed, let us know what it is in the comments.
Comments
Is there a fault on this page? I can’t select anything lower than the first option.
I’m using FireFox.
Yup works ok in IE.
Tut Tut, and after all the lectures on browser compatibility. LOL
Yup, it’s the page, not the browser
Hi Barry,
Yes, the About.com designers are aware of the issue with the polls. It has been reported numerous times.
I’ll see if I can adjust the HTML that I have access to to get it to work again, but this is one of those things that I can’t control. If you’re really concerned about browser compatibility, etc. I would suggest writing directly to About.com (rather than commenting here where the only person to see it is me). and letting them know of the problem: http://webdesign.about.com/gi/pages/pform.htm
I use Woopra (www.woopra.com) - stats are in REAL TIME. Takes a while to get your site approved (still in beta) but it’s GREAT.
Awstats works great and gives me up to date records of visitors and traffic links and keywords used to find our site. Google Analytics works great also, but I prefer Awstats.
Charles
San Antonio Web Design
www.sitebranders.com
I use a PHP package I am developing, this way I can have any statistic or diagram I want.
I would be curious to see a “What analysis and stats do you need for your site? ” poll, because there is always something missing that a user wants, or might want in each package.