Why I use 3 stats services

I’m a stats FREAK! I check them at least 50 times a day, no kidding. If you couldn’t tell from my anniversary post, I want this blog to be a success, but I need a good way to measure that success.

Since I’m also a gmail freak, naturally I started out using Google Analytics, but when I switched to my new host which included server logs, I started measuring my analytics against my server logs. The contrast was staggering! Since I also use Feedburner, I decided to add a third stats program to the mix, and again the differences were pretty surprising.

Just yesterday, I saw a search query show up in my FeedBurner site stats that didn’t show up in my server logs or my Google Analytics. I saw a referrer show up in Analytics that showed up in neither of the other two. Also, regularly I find search queries and referrers in my server logs that don’t show up in the other two.

Basically, I’ve found that each has it’s own benefits, and I’d rather not choose just one. So, the following are some pros and cons of each stat program I use:

Server logs

Pros:
Great at tracking unique visitors
Good at tracking search queries and referrers
Top daily content and monthly summaries are nice

Cons:
No pretty graphs like Google
Misses the occasional search query and referrer
Doesn’t track outgoing links very well
One long page of daily stats, not logically separated
You have to wait til the next day to see your stats

Google Analytics

Pros:
Pretty graphs
Performance measurements/trends
Calendar to quick jump between days
The stats I want are easy to find using the navigation
Great visitor detail

Cons:
Extra javascript
Always on the low end with unique visitors
Regularly misses search queries
Just doesn’t seem to catch everything, which is frustrating.

FeedBurner Site Stats

Pros:
Very easy interface: Dashboard, Visitors, Pages, Incoming, Outgoing
Updates frequently
Very easy to track my incoming/outgoing links
Top content is accurate in its ranking

Cons:
Again, since it’s javascript it can be slow and doesn’t catch nearly enough information
Not a whole lot of detail, but I imagine it’s by design
Top content is inaccurate in its totals
It’s just not designed to be a heavy duty stats program

I’m going to keep them all. I don’t see any reason to just trust one, especially when they give me such different results. Essentially, I try to just use them all to get an accurate reading of my stats for the day.

What do you do? What’s your favorite stats program? Do you have the same discrepancy that I have been having between your stats programs? Let me know either by emailing me or commenting below.

By the way, if you have any experience writing WordPress widgets, please email me.  I have an opportunity for someone to release a widget, but need some help. 

[tags]stats, analytics, google analytics, feedburner, server logs[/tags]

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