Forum Moderators: DixonJones
We are currently using a 'real time' Javascript-based stats package - by adding code to each web page.
The system is generally OK, but seems weak on tracking actual visitor numbers - instead it focuses heavily on pages served. It will give you a lot of info on page impressions/pages served, will give a record of 'unique' visitors for a specified time span, but all repeat visitor numbers are lumped into one big 'pot'.
This means we can't see how many visitors came to the site - unless they were 'uniques'.
It also seems to identify 'entry page' numbers by the domains which accessed the pages. For example if 100 visitors from one domain access the same page upon entry it shows the entry page and a figure of '1' - for the single page served to what it sees as one visitor from the same domain. This could of course be 100 different visitors from a big customer.
I think we are just looking for some good recommendations from those who are using similar packages. Support is a big issue, as our current provider scores very, very low on this.
Any advice appreciated.
As you know, WebmasterWorld tries to avoid product drops where it can, but I understand your problem oh so well!
Two threads that may help are [webmasterworld.com...] and [webmasterworld.com...]
Look for a company that can at least explain how they distinguish between a daily unique visitor and (say) an all time unique visitor.
Support comes at a price! But OH so well worth it.
I think the main thing we are finding with our Javascript tracking is (logically) it measures 'page imressions' not 'visitors'. It does give us daily/hourly etc. uniques but once the visitor ceases to become a unique the info gets fuzzy.
It will tell us how many 'visitors' are not unique, and are returning, but wont' give us a breakdown on this population of visitors - how many (in terms of accurate numbers) have come back, how many times they have come back as users etc.
Obviously, and as usual, trying to explain to a client why their site has had 100,000 pages served, but can't really give them an accurate idea of how this breaks down to visitors is always a problem.
Having said all this, we do find the Javascript, on page logging, a lot better than the log analysis we were doing a few years ago...
I've never had much luck with off-the-shelf stuff...
