Google Analytics

Author: Phil Munroe

Google Analytics (GA) can provide traffic flow, from total number of visits, pages per visit, average time on our website, and much more. It is based on a small piece of Javascript (smaller than many scripts we may use ourselves), and therefore has no impact to our own servers—only client side. The current tracking code is 18K in size, and is cached on subsequent page loads. It is apparently fail-safe, as if there is a GA Javascript error, it will not cause the page to hang, and it's also the last piece of code to be loaded on any page.

GA also tracks browsers, browser version, operating system, and IP addresses, but goes beyond what is capable in processing raw server logs, such as being able to detect screen depth (colors), resolutions, Flash versions, movement throughout the site, connection speeds, detect if a visitor is a new or return visitor, detect bounce rate (where someone visits one page and leaves, but doesn't visit any other pages), and more. Enabling it sitewide will be much simpler, as any page can be viewed at will from the Dashboard. GA also has the ability to perform automatic A/B Split and Multivariable testing to allow reporting of which "version" of a page is performing better.

It is better to consider GA as a tool for measuring trends, rather than raw numbers, as GA only collects data if Javascript, images, and cookies are enabled in the client's browser. GA is free, and is capable of providing much more than I've been able to monitor using AWStats. And it's free. Many of our colleges are using GA on the home page.

Google also provides all these statistics in a customizable dashboard style format, with draggable blocks to show the statistics that are most important. Stats are generally available a few hours past real-time. In any case, GA is a tool that can supplement other data sources.

http://www.google.com/analytics/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics
GA vs Server Logs comparison