Best Stat Application

Hiya. I am so not techno-savvy, so I am hoping someone can help me out. I would love to find an easy-to-use program to track the number of hits I get on my page each day. The only ones I've been able to find are ones that publicly display the counter, but that's just not my style.

Any suggestions?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Angela on March 5, 2008 at 9:52am

I use both StatCounter AND GoogleAnalytics, because neither provides me with everything I want. GoogleAnalytics is more accurate on location (I live and work in Chicago. StatCounter claims that I work in Colorado and live in San Francisco. GoogleAnalytics gets it right.), and it provides better maps and charts. StatCounter tracks by IP addresses, so you can label people when you figure out who they are and see exactly who is coming to your blog, from where, and at what time.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mfrech on March 5, 2008 at 10:03am

So does Google Analytics not allow the labeling of individual IP addresses? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I don't know too much about GA, but I'm intruiged...I've had the similar experience of Statcounter being very inaccurate about geography...it's pretty strange. I'm outside Boston and it'll say I'm hitting from NYC.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angela on March 5, 2008 at 10:11am

On GoogleAnalytics, you can't see ANYTHING from the perspective of IP addresses (I get the feeling it's more geared towards people with larger websites and businesses as opposed to bloggers). Not only can you not label them, you can't even see them. You don't really get a sense of the identity of anyone individually. You can see what percentage of people use a certain browser, how many come from NY, etc. But you can't see "someone came from Boston from 20sb at noon".

Also, there are no times listed (it's recorded as what happens in a day, but not more specific than that), and there's a bit of a delay. So checking your stats at 12:04am won't give you as accurate of results as checking at 7am will.

But, like I said, the maps are great. And it's a lot cleaner and prettier than stat counter. You can see a clear list of what keywords people use, and what referring sites are getting them to your site. And those are well organized by number of hits.

Anyway. I have both because I feel like they complement each other well, as both are lacking.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mfrech on March 5, 2008 at 10:33am

Thanks for the thorough breakdown, Angela; that really clears things up.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angela on March 5, 2008 at 10:41am

Happy to help. :)

It's nice to know that my long-winded-ness occasionally comes in handy. I am nothing if not thorough (hence why my blog posts are always massively long... I always feel the need to delve deep into everything).

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mfrech on March 5, 2008 at 10:48am

Haha, I can relate. That's the problem and the potential of writing in a digital medium--there's nothing to stop one from bloviating non-stop, forever and ever and ever...

Best Stat Application

Replies to This Discussion

Welcome to 20 Something Bloggers!