Hitbox vs. WebTrends

Why is there such a large difference in the visitor stat?

[kgoeres]

I just recently switched from WebTrends (log analyzer) to Hitbox Professional (an ASP). The visitor stat is so much smaller on the Hitbox report than on the WebTrends report. Does anyone have any insight why this metric is so much smaller on Hitbox? (24,000 visitors on WT and only 5,000 on Hitbox.)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[cornwall]

We had quite a good discussion on stats in

[webmasterworld.com...]

Whilst I use Webtrends, I have no experience with Hitbox. Do they eliminate/not count self referals, and/or no referrer? These two account for around half of the count on WebTrends.

[jimnovo]

Could be something else besides a referrer issue, especially when you are talking about WebTrends versus ASP. Check your WebTrends reports under the Activity section, and look at the report "Visits by Number of Pages Viewed".

Do you have any "0 Page Visits"? They sometimes can be 2/3 of visits, literally, a visit with no page viewed. They are usually made up of file pulls off the server to a remote site: affiliate art, direct links to file downloads, photo stealing, etc. An ASP would not pick these up since it typically needs a tag on a page, which these files would not have - thus a "0 Page Visit", which an ASP can't track.

If you want to exclude these 0 Page Visits from WebTrends reports, filter to use only valid data matching what you really want to know for reporting, e.g. include .html and .asp, or exclude .jpg and .gif

[martinibuster]

Are you inserting their javascript code into every page of your web site?

Is this Hitbox Pro?

What do you mean by "Visitors?"

Are you tracking Monthly Unique Visitors? This is my favorite measure of monthly traffic increases.

[kgoeres]

Thanks for your thoughts. I use Hitbox Pro and I definitely have the code on every page. When I say "visitors" I mean "visitor sessions", not uniques. I'm trying to figure out a way to explain why this number is so low in Hitbox, compared to WebTrends (which I've been using for a few years.) I will look at the "Visits by Number of Pages Viewed" and see if thay helps. Thanks!

[kgoeres]

Yep...50% of visitors viewed 0 pages. I guess it's a good thing I've switched to an ASP so the numbers are more accurate.

[martinibuster]

The calendar monthly uniques is a good way to track your visitor growth momentum.

Just go to the menu and choose it. Then go to the calendar and from the monthly drop down choose your month (even if it's the current month- as it will give you the forecast).

Another great tool is to check your Entry Page Stats because it can show which pages are performing and which ones may need a little help.

I used WebTrends only briefly and was under the impression that it was a Coke vs. Pepsi thing- but again, my experience with webtrends was limited.

These things have their limitations and I guess you have to work with that.