Why we shouldn't use AWstats to measure marketing efforts?
-
and what are the disadvantages of awstats compared to Google Analytics?
-
I think the simple answer to this one is that Google Analytics is simply better. It provides way more functionality and the ability to actually track conversions, funnels and a whole lot more. AWStats gives you raw data almost, but Google Analytics allows you to make sense of it.
-
I use both AWStats and Analytics. I actually find the unique visits , hits,page views to be more accurate on AWstats than Google. However Google can provide more in depth analysis which is actually more useful. I also think that Google Analytics is heavily effected by the EU cookie directive, as when this arrived I noticed a drop in Analytics figures. For example page views on AWstats for one client shows 1000 people where google Analytics shows 600. We know that the AWstats figures are more accurate from the responses from the example page. However the 600 we can drill down the data to find where else the users visited and also how long etc... So AWstats in my view are for the headline figures and Analytics are for the analysts and number crunchers.
-
Pretty much agreed with Nakul and the reason is that AWstats might not provide you the tons and tons of data those Google Analytics posses in it.
Obviously you can use it technically as there is no harm in it but if you compare GA with AWStats there is no way you can compare!
-
You can. It's just that Free Tools like GA, provide you a lot more data and reporting that AWStats can't. Still, there's no reason for you not to use AWStats if that serves your needs and that's all your care about in terms of basic daily/monthly reporting.
-
But why we shouldn't use it for measuring marketing efforts?
-
Awstats, back in those days worked wonders. One advantage it has is that it's Server Side, which is crunching Raw Log Files. Other then that, GA and similar Analytics are much more advanced today and provide an insane amount of data and reporting. You can do Week over Week, Month Over Month, Year Over Year kinds of analysis, and other custom reporting, which you can't do with AWstats and alike.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should I use sessions or unique visitors to work out my ecommerce conversion rate?
Hi all First question here but I've been lingering in the shadows for a while. As part of my companies digital marketing plan for the next financial year we are looking at benchmarking against certain KPIs. At the moment I simply report our conversion rate as Google Analytics displays it. I was incorrectly under the impression that it was reported as unique visits / total orders but I've now realised it's sessions / total orders. At my company we have quite a few repeat purchasers. So, is it best that we stick to the sessions / total orders conversion rate? My understanding is multiple sessions from the same visitor would all count towards this conversion rate and because we have repeat purchasers these wouldn't be captured under the unique visits / total orders method? It's almost as if every session we would have to consider that we have an opportunity to convert. The flip side of this is that on some of our higher margin products customers may visit multiple times before making a purchase. I should probably add that I'll be benchmarking data based on averages from the 1st April - 31st of March which is a financial year in the UK. The other KPI we will be benchmarking against is visitors. Should we change this to sessions if we will be benchmarking conversion rate using the sessions formula? This could help with continuity and could also help to reveal whether our planned content marketing efforts are engaging users. I hope this makes sense and thanks for reading and offering advice in advance. Joe
Reporting & Analytics | | joe-ainswoth1 -
What type of links/redirect is Yahoo! using?
So I'm trying to figure out exactly what type redirect or hyperlinking Yahoo! is using on their article pages. For example:
Reporting & Analytics | | William.Lau
https://shopping.yahoo.com/blogs/fashionate/spring-clean-your-beauty-routine--10-tips-on-looking-fresh-this-season-000058218.html Hover over an external link, it shows you the ending URL. Right or left click it, it gives you a 302 redirect. When you actually left click it, it adds and "id" attribute, I assume for tracking. However, when you left click the the hyperlink, it no longer shows as a 302. I have limited working knowledge of web development techniques, so anyone with advance knowledge or have actually done this, it'd be helpful to understand this more.0 -
Analytics - 'other'
When i look in GA under Channels (under Acquisition) 'other' is listed What is 'other' ? I have been told its other unidentified channels as they did not allow 3rd party cookies or surfers were in anonymous/private mode. Other is usually organic traffic that couldn't be identified for the aformentioned reasons. This data is encrypted and available but it violates Google guidelines as they are not allowed to pass personal info//data to third parties so it is automatically filtered. But they are not 'Not Provided' (since that still shows under organic) but is usually/mainly some form of organic visits. Hence Seo can take credit for much of that traffic, is this correct ? Many Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Why are there url's in my np Keywords in google analtyics?
I have been scratching my head at this one. On my not provided keywords, there is a url. Keyword is the primary dimension. It doesn't makes sense why there would be url keywords for pages with a different url. For example, the keywords for page www.xyz.com/abc np - /someotherurl.com Thanks for your insights in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | konverge0 -
Rising in Bing and Yahoo SERP's, but falling in Googles?
We've dropped rankings across the board in Google, not severely but 1 and 2 spot drops and yet increased in rankings in Bing and Yahoo on the same keywords (basically all of them). Is this the sign of a new bad incoming link?
Reporting & Analytics | | absoauto0 -
Anyone notice a drop in results using site operator?
I set our site's preferred domain back on January 28. We had a www and non www domain being indexed. Since then, I've seen the number or results for our site site operator (site:) decline dramatically. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. So, I'm trying to see if it's unique to our site. My gut is that the numbers are probably leveling out to where they should be and the duplicates are falling out, but I would think that as I see number of results for non www decline, the number of results for www would increase. Any thoughts? Anyone else seeing fluctuations in results using site: ? Lisa
Reporting & Analytics | | Aggie0 -
What are the top free tools to use in SEO (apart from SeoMoz of course)
Hi guys, Can you point me the best free tools you're using for SEO (link building, etc.) - apart from SeoMoz - I'm kind of newbie in that area and in a discovering process. Thanks !
Reporting & Analytics | | zedisdead0 -
What's the best enterprise analytic solution for a website with 100+ Million Visits/Month
Hi Guys, I'm looking for an enterprise solution for my companies website that currently gets 100+ Million visits a month? We use the free version of Google Analytic but the sampling levels we get are just too small. We have the budget to get something substantial -- the question is what solution should we go with? Thanks, Nicolas
Reporting & Analytics | | Nicolas_Seattle0