Hi Everyone,

When I check the numbers of visits on my company's website, my server and google analytics numbers are quite different for the same period of time.

Does anyone know how it's possible and how to fix that problem so that I can evaluate more accurately how visitors I got?

Thanks for your help.

Julien

I just multiply whatever google has by 2 :-)

I've got for a new client 420 visits in June according to my server and 160 according to Google Analytics. Your x2 rule almost works :-)

I'd trust more my server stats that anyone else.
I use firefox with noscript extension.
As Google analytics use javascript to register that you've been on a site, with that extension, I'm not recorded (except if I add google-analytics to my whitelist).

Your server stats are based on the server log files, which are an absolute metric.
If someone came to your site, then there's a trace in your log.

Now, filtering new/recurring visits is always tricky, the web being a stateless network.
You can do everything you want, there is no method that allows you to part them 100%. Cookie, IP, digital signature, login, they all have some situations where you won't be able to sort out if the user is coming back or if it's a new visit.

That's right. Google never gives the true picture about the stats of any site. I trust my cpanel stats more whereas google always provide a lesser number...

I rely on my server state rather than google.

Julien no two analytics programs will show the same numbers since they typically use somewhat different methods of collecting data.

Server logs are recording every visit to your site including robotic visits. Google Analytics uses javascript to capture data so robotic traffic should be minimized, though it also means Analytics isn't recording anyone who surfs without javascript enabled.

Also since the Analytics code is usually located at the end of your html some visitors could leave before the Analytics code has loaded.

It's usually more important to look at the data relatively. Instead of worrying about the specific numbers look to see what your growth is month to month for example.

No one stats program will give you a complete picture of what's going on. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

server stats is not right, it also count the crawler as a visitor, images urls, php files as a page, first you exclude these from your server stats...Google analytics show the result of those pages only on which you have install the script.

Originally Posted by vangogh

Julien no two analytics programs will show the same numbers since they typically use somewhat different methods of collecting data.

Server logs are recording every visit to your site including robotic visits. Google Analytics uses javascript to capture data so robotic traffic should be minimized, though it also means Analytics isn't recording anyone who surfs without javascript enabled.

thanks,
that makes sense.

Google does not count bot hits on your site... awstats and alike do, and there is your difference.