Non-server based web stats

Which is best?

[dillonstars]

I wonder if anyone can offer me any advice.

I have just taken over the online marketing of a site, but the hosting they use do not provide graphical web stats that anywhere near detailed enough for what i want.

They don't want to move hosting either, as the host is a local company and provides their email and good support for them.

My question therefore, is which non-hosting based stats software is best to use (if any!)? I am looking for good allround information provided by the stats and good value for money.

I use matrix stats and urchin stats on other websites and am happy with the quality of information they provide.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Rob

<typos fixed - oops>

[broniusm]

dillonstars-
I'm enjoying Hits Link. They provide a script to drop an inconsiquential image in your webpages which logs hits to their server for each of your pages. You will be able to track everything from clientside browser detail to page-path. Expand your package to include ROI metrics. $10/mo

If you trial www.hitslink.com [hitslink.com], be sure to first download Web Position Gold [web-positiongold.com] first if for nothing else than their affiliate relationship which increases your HitsLink trial period from 30 to 90 days.

Happy Independence Day (to our US audience)

[dillonstars]

Thanks for the recommendation. On the demo on the site it does not show referrers or keyword phrases and suchlike.

Is this information included in the report or is this impossible to see without using a proper log file analyser?

[broniusm]

Is this information included in the report or is this impossible to see without using a proper log file analyser?

'fraid I can't help ya there. I'm not a paid client yet, but I do see that those reports are there. Somehow I thought I remembered seeing in one of the FAQs that that info is not available in the trial version.
Anyhow, John at hitslink will answer all your questions-- tell him I sentcha :) But be sure to spill the beans back here in case someone googles across this thread some months down the road.

oh, but either way, I don't think you need an external log analyzer. For my limited results, I've been just hawking the terms off the urls for SEs I recognized. Please do send an update on your findings!

[broniusm]

just an update: the above-referenced service, [url=www.hitslink.com]hitslink[/url], does a good job with search engines and listing search keywords even in under trial service. What I was doing wrong was checking in the morning, and each report defaults to "today." There are links to other periods or a custom date range from the same report.

[dillonstars]

thanks for the info.... sorry i havent posted an update on my findings as of yet, i'm still trying to get the customer to make a decision....

[broniusm]

Ah-- maybe you can coerce the client into a decision with a little fancy marketing-- hitslink lets you be a reseller or affiliate, too. Check out there site and get in touch with John for info.

[dillonstars]

Ok I did a trial of hitslink and I am very impressed. The detail of the information is superb and it is very easy to use.

I have matrix stats and urchin running on other domains and the data from hitslink is comparable to those.

I will be recommending that my client uses these guys, just have to see if they will fork up the cash.

My only doubts are that I'm not keen on a pay per page impression, and the javascript code makes my html validation fail for some reason - but i could be doing something wrong.