Google Analytics & web hosting stats differ?

[ukglyn]

Hi all

Was not sure whether to post here or in businness section:shrug:

As the title says really, I use Google Analytics to track my website, & also with the hosting company I get a weekly stats review, now the question is why do these differ from each other The web host 1 only gives me page hits, visitors & visits, not all the other info you get with analytics, but even the hit rate differs:shrug:

Any ideas why?

 

[Eltheza]

Hi Glyn!

They'll be using different methods (algorithms) for collecting the statistics. Post #8 here is interesting:

http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29047

See also:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=969597

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google Analytics/thread?tid=16c7916678f07761&hl=en

(I'm new here, but old on a general computer forum and a web design forum; have done a website for a very small software company!)

 

[DigitalRelish]

Google's Analytics are viewer dependent and can be easily blocked. Server generated stats ought to be the most accurate way of recording metrics as they measure what's being served as opposed to what's being viewed, but even then different server-side stats packages will measure things differently and things like browser agents (which indicate which web browser you're using) can be spoofed.

All in all, don't be surprised to see discrepancies because it's rarely an exact science.