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View Full Version : How many use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools



KristineS
08-08-2008, 08:49 AM
I use Analytics for our company web sites and blogs. I've also just started delving in to Google Webmaster Tools. I find the Analytics data very helpful. I'm just wondering what other people's experience has been, and if there is something better than Analytics out there.

graphic3
08-08-2008, 01:46 PM
I use both and completely love them - they are very useful and provide information that helps you drive more traffic towards your site -

ex. you can see the keywords that were searched and how many times it was searched - so for me - i design logos - so if someone is searching "catering logo"
well, then i need to be developing catering logos.. that's just one example

also - you can see which sites your being referred from - so if it's a forum then, one option is to keep posting there b/c people there must be finding your information in relation to the forum.

so i advise people to use what google has to offer - it helps in many ways.

KristineS
08-08-2008, 05:17 PM
It always shocks me when people say they're doing marketing and not tracking the stats on their sites. I always ask how they know if their marketing is working or not and they can never give me an answer.

There's no excuse for not tracking your traffic, at least as far as I'm concerned. Google Analytics is free after all.

orion_joel
08-09-2008, 02:42 AM
I have started using google Analytics in the last month or so, however i am unsure of the accuracy of the results for my sites. I have been watching my visitor counts with AwStats in the Cpanel of my sites for months and the results google are showing now are drastically lower then i was seeing before.

So i am wondering just which set of stats to trust more so. I have still to look into the google webmaster tools but hope to have a look tonight maybe.

graphic3
08-09-2008, 06:37 PM
well if your comparing to your awstats - it seems that google tracks "googles" visitors and stats - not all of the SE's , not sure but i think AWstats tracks all search engines does anyone know search engines are tracked by AWstats?

vangogh
08-09-2008, 09:26 PM
I use both. If you sell a product through your site definitely set up the ecommerce part of Analytics.

Joel Analytics tracks through JavaScript while AwStats grabs its info from your server logs. AwStats will report a certain amount of robotic traffic that Analytics won't because the robots won't activate JavaScript.

On the other hand Analytics will sometimes miss people if they leave before the Analytics script loads at the bottom of the page.

AwStats probably over inflates your real traffic some and Analytics probably under represents it a little.

No two stats packages will show the same data. I like to look at the stats more in relative terms like my site has 10% more visitors this month than last. The relative measurments will probably be similar in both programs.

@graphic - AwStats is recording robotic traffic including search engines. For search robots it knows about it pulls them out of the stats and records things as robotic traffic, though it does offer a section showing info about search engines. But it doesn't know about all search engines or all robots so many are counted as ordinary visitors resulting in the appearance you have more people on your site than you really do.

orion_joel
08-10-2008, 03:36 AM
I don't think that google analytics only tracks visitors from google searches, just looking at my stats there now, it also shows from msn. Even though Analytics is operated by Google it would be fairly poor for them to not show exact sources even if they are not from Google itself. Because this would defeat the purpose of the system they are trying to create.

The other thing that i think is a key i just realized for Google Analytics is that it will only track visitors that visit parts of your site with the script on the page. So if you use Word Press, and put the code in the template that shows when people visit the site it will not pick up when you are accessing the admin area of the site. So really the Analytics state may be more accurate. However at the end of the day i think which ever stats you use as Vangogh said it is more about the increase then the exact figures.

vangogh
08-10-2008, 01:39 PM
Google definitely tracks more than just traffic through Google. It'll track anything that activates the javascript code. You do have to have the script on the page in order for it to be tracked. If you use a CMS or your site has been built so that common sections are in one file it's easy to add Analytics across your site.

When I develop a site I usually have the footer as one file which I include through PHP. Then I just need to add the Analytics javascript to the one file.

Otherwise you do need to add it to every page you want to track.

The one thing to always remember about stats is they tell the truth, but not the whole truth.