Google analytical report

[fahad direct]

I have subdomains and i have included my google analytical javascript code by php include file having lines as:

_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'my-site-account']);
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.mysite.com']);

I am afraid i am totally different visits report than my server AWstat report. Am i doing anything wrong?

[jonathonhewitt]

No, you are not, you have chosen the right version of your Google Analytics code. Google Analytics in comparison to server stats have been known to differ greatly and the first thing to know is that there are pros and cons to all different tracking methods and exactly how many people see your site in any given period of time is essentially unknown due to the way that the internet works. Since computers share and change IP addresses and people have multiple computers, mobile phones and other devices that can access the internet, no web statistic will ever give you a true true answer. Once you accept this, you can understand how the two main types of traffic data solutions attempt to compensate for this and decide which better meets your needs.

Sever log files very literally and accurately tell you how many (and which) pages or files were viewed, and you can get reports of this information with log file analysis software like AWstats, Sawmill, and Webalizer. Unfortunately, and this goes along the lines of the uncertainty principle, the more perfectly you know this data the more difficult it is to know how many people really viewed your pages and files.

This is because the information in log files (i.e. time stamp, file name, requesting IP, and browser) is limited. To counteract this log file software defines rules that say what constitutes a visit and a unique visitor, but this information is never fully accurate or standardized across different server logs.

The Bottom Line: Log files will always give you a higher number of page views, visits, and unique visitors when compared to a web-based, javascript solution like Google Analytics, and in most cases the high numbers are too high.

[fahad direct]

I am still confused if the information i am getting right by Google analytics. To further inspect i have added separate profile for each of my subdomain filter by Host. My main domain shows there are 550 visits and if i count visits from my each subdomain profile it is 800. Such a big difference?

[still]

You need to setup acceptance of cross-domain linking on the subdomains (allow cookie duplication) as well as wrap links between the subdomains to get Google to pass the data across.

[fahad direct]

Analytical code _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.mysite.com']) means it is already on cross-domain linking.

[still]

_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.mysite.com']) just means that the tracking is not restricted to a particular subdomain.

Read [code.google.com...] for instructions on how to initiate cookie duplication between (sub)domains.

[rwilson]

I've moved away from server log files because the numbers are too high and it is difficult to profile visitors.

I'm sure there are drawbacks to Analytics too. It's a javascript based tracking, so if your using the older non AJAX version, depending on where it is on your page can affect if the script gets triggered before your user leaves. Also if people have javascript off they won't get logged.