Google Analytics / SmarterStats - Who do you trust?

[mdefender]

Has anyone noticed the HUGE difference in statistical values between Google Analytics and SmartStats Enterprise?

I did a comparison between the two and, let's just say - they are nowhere close to each other.

Combining Jan 28th thru Feb 2nd - Google Analytics shows my PageViews at 7584. For Jan 28th ALONE, SmartStats shows my PageViews at 20,881(!).

Daily visitors in Analytics averages 300 - 500 a day. Daily totals for Visits in SmarterStats averages 1900 to 2500 a day.

Even the eCommerce is slightly off. I just don't get it.

When it comes to stats - who do you trust?

[brassandsilver]

They are always different because they aren't measuring the same things, really. I believe the numbers you are viewing in Smarter Stats includes all of the crawler traffic you are receiving, while the Google Analytics is not including that. If you want to see real time information about your traffic, I highly recommend using Woopra. Another forum user suggested them in a different thread, so we tried it, and I am so glad we did. Not only does it show you all of the data for visitors and page views, it also shows you who is on your site in real time. We love Woopra, and after just a couple weeks of use find it to be the best analytics tools ever.

[Toobusy]

Ditto on Woopra, I can't recommend it enough and I LOVE the live chat feature as well

[mdefender]

brassandsilver, Toobusy - thank you both for the recommendation. I downloaded the Woopra program and gave the free version a go for about an hour - and I am hooked! I was using StatsNow for years when I was on my Miva platform - but it is nothing compared to Woopra. The amount of real-time data is unbeleivable. I already signed up for the Bronze account - I thought the screen would be less cluttered if the ads were not there :)

Let me ask you - it just could have been my internet connection (I have DSL) but did you notice a slowdown in the performance of your site when Woopra was running? Like I said - it's probably just the ups and downs of my DSL connection.

Thanks again for the recommendation - I am now Woopra lover too!

[Toobusy]

I've not noticed that the site is slower to load for me and I've had no one make any comments about the speed of the site either. I actually do get questions and people seem to like the live chat feature so that saves a phone call or two here and there during my day. I've also not noticed that my bandwidth has increased either, but I'm a Woopra lovin fool myself and can't imagine how I got along without it now?

[brassandsilver]

We don't see any difference in speed either. Things seem to run just as they had before we began using Woopra. We also replaced the built in 3dCart live chat with the Woopra live chat, and like that much better than the other one. It has audible tones if you have incoming chat requests, which was a big complaint we had about the built-in chat. Something about it appeals to our customers more as well - since we made the switch our live chat usage has more than tripled.