Discovertec delivers accurate website statistics without having to solely use of JavaScript tags. With log file analysis, users can measure website visitor traffic separately from spider and bot traffic, analyze website performance and page load times and even monitor the performance of servers across the network. Script-based analyzers like Google Analytics only record data from pages that have the JavaScript tracking code. That means pages without the code aren't being included in your website statistics
Overview
Regardless of whether a website is designed for a business or individual, it is important to collect and evaluate the site's analytics. At a very basic level, this involves tracking information about unique visits, page views, bounce rates and conversion rates. Analyzing this data will help you predict visitor behavior and modify your website design and/or marketing campaigns for improved success.
Methods for Gathering Website Analytics
The Web Analytics Association defines Web analytics as "the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage." There are two main methods for collecting website analytics: log file analysis and script-based analysis.
Every time someone visits a website, the Web server records information about every file request, i.e., the HTML files, CSS files, JavaScript files, graphic files, PDF documents, MP3s, etc., and stores them in log files. These log files also include information on site and Web server errors, page processing time, bandwidth used, visitor IP address, referring websites, and much more. Log file analyzers like SmarterStats interpret this data to create website statistics and reports.
Alternatively, script-based analyzers like Google Analytics require the use of tracking code (usually JavaScript) on each webpage that is to be tracked. As visitors surf the website, the code places a cookie on their computer so they have a unique identifier and can be tracked-provided the visitor is using a browser that supports JavaScript, has cookies enabled and is not using security software to protect the browser.
Log Analyzers vs. Script-based Analyzers
Each method for gathering website analytics has its benefits and drawbacks. For example, script-based analyzers only record data from pages that have the JavaScript tracking code; any pages without the code will not have statistics available. This is also one of the reasons log file analyzers report higher traffic (views, visits and hits) than Google Analytics does, as the Web server log files track every interaction visitors have with a website.
Similarly, because log file analyzers process log file data instead of relying on forward-facing JavaScript, they have access to information that script-based analyzers don't (such as data relating to traffic from spiders and bots, server errors and bandwidth statistics).
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Log Analyzers vs. Script-based Analyzers
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