A couple of days ago, I posted about Piwik which is a Google Analytics alternative. These two gather information the same way: via javascript. While this is gives great insight into your visitors, it is not 100% reliable because of script blockers. Basically, if a visitor is running a script blocking utility (i.e. NoScript), unless the user has specifically set the script domain as trusted, it will not run which means no stats.

All this just means you shouldn’t forget about log file analysis for web traffic. While you usually cannot get the same amount of detail as the javascript variety, when you have logging on your web server every visit is recorded, regardless. For a great log analysis tool, check out AWStats. I have used this for many years on my servers and it is fantastic.

Granted only a small percentage of people use script blockers, but if you run a tech blog (like this site) a higher percentage of your visitors may be using one which can affect your traffic stats. When you use log file analysis, you know every visit is captured.

One of the more popular tools among people who run their own web sites is Google Analytics. Rightfully so as it is able to track just about anything you want. The only problem with Google Analytics is that you don’t own your own stats. Google keeps all the data on their servers and you access it through their portal. If you are looking to self host these tracking stats, check out Piwik.

Piwik is a PHP MySQL software program that you download and install on your own webserver. At the end of the five minute installation process you will be given a JavaScript tag. Simply copy and paste this tag on websites you wish to track.

As you can see, installation on a web site is as simple as Google Analytics and all the stats are stored in a database you control. Additionally, you can expand Piwik with many available plugins.

If you run your own sites and like to study your stats, this is at least worth looking into.