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Google Analytics is hugely overrated. Most people don't use it properly, many browsers block it entirely, and you can usually do a better job just by looking at

Google Analytics is hugely overrated. Most people don't use it properly, many browsers block it entirely, and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs.

TekMol 5y ago
Saying so just tells me that you never been analyzing and optimizing websites with millions of users. Websites on which a whole company depends on. It would be a crazy approach to try and do it via server logs.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  Actually, there are some nice tools (e.g. GoAccess) that produce pretty graphs. The vast majority of people just want pretty graphs; the more fancy data Google Analytics produces is nowhere near as accurate as the number of trailing non-zero digits would have you believe. Depending on your userbase, the regular traffic data can be off by significant proportions. I've seen pages where the number of logged-in interactions are higher than the number of Google Analytics hits.
- bovermyer 5y ago
  Server logs aren't the only alternative to Google Analytics. Matomo, Plausible, and Fathom are all perfectly viable.
- Semaphor 5y ago
  But GA is indeed not very useful for many questions. FF blocks it by default. We use server-side stats and for last month I get 30.1% Chrome, 28.8% FF. Now when I compare that to GA: 40% Chrome, 16% FF…
dewey 5y ago
> and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs Yes, if you only want to count visits and don't have a problem having all bot traffic included. For everything a bit more advanced you need a proper analytics tool.
- wizzwizz4 5y ago
  Filtering out bot traffic is easy enough with server logs. A self-hosted JavaScript analytics tool gives you more data, but Google Analytics filters out Firefox users too; contrary to ReCAPTCHA's apparent beliefs, Firefox users are mostly not bots.
  - Semaphor 5y ago
    > but Google Analytics filters out Firefox users too; contrary to ReCAPTCHA's apparent beliefs, Firefox users are mostly not bots. Isn’t it the other way around? FF by default blocks GA.
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      It is. From the perspective of the person choosing an analytics system, it doesn't matter exactly what the reason is, though.

Google Analytics is hugely overrated. Most people don't use it properly, many browsers block it entirely, and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs.

TekMol 5y ago

Saying so just tells me that you never been analyzing and optimizing websites with millions of users. Websites on which a whole company depends on. It would be a crazy approach to try and do it via server logs.

wizzwizz4 5y ago
Actually, there are some nice tools (e.g. GoAccess) that produce pretty graphs. The vast majority of people just want pretty graphs; the more fancy data Google Analytics produces is nowhere near as accurate as the number of trailing non-zero digits would have you believe. Depending on your userbase, the regular traffic data can be off by significant proportions. I've seen pages where the number of logged-in interactions are higher than the number of Google Analytics hits.
bovermyer 5y ago
Server logs aren't the only alternative to Google Analytics. Matomo, Plausible, and Fathom are all perfectly viable.
Semaphor 5y ago
But GA is indeed not very useful for many questions. FF blocks it by default. We use server-side stats and for last month I get 30.1% Chrome, 28.8% FF. Now when I compare that to GA: 40% Chrome, 16% FF…

dewey 5y ago

> and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs Yes, if you only want to count visits and don't have a problem having all bot traffic included. For everything a bit more advanced you need a proper analytics tool.

wizzwizz4 5y ago
Filtering out bot traffic is easy enough with server logs. A self-hosted JavaScript analytics tool gives you more data, but Google Analytics filters out Firefox users too; contrary to ReCAPTCHA's apparent beliefs, Firefox users are mostly not bots.
- Semaphor 5y ago
  > but Google Analytics filters out Firefox users too; contrary to ReCAPTCHA's apparent beliefs, Firefox users are mostly not bots. Isn’t it the other way around? FF by default blocks GA.
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    It is. From the perspective of the person choosing an analytics system, it doesn't matter exactly what the reason is, though.