Hello all,

I would like to get a better tracking system going that will monitor where the visitors come from by itself as well as by using generated URLs/codes. Currently we just use PHPlive's Click'It ability. It works well, but I'd like to get something more in depth.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you

Google Analytics?

I would definately second google analytics - it's functionality and range of reports are excellent especially since it is free.

Checked it out, thought it was only for adwords? Perhaps I was wrong. Didn't look close enough.

I tried various systems, and we were even developing a tracking system on our own... until we found google analytics. It keeps track of every source, not only adwords.

Highly recommended.

interspire trackpoint is also an option

check out indextools.com

Give activemeter.com a try. Free and provides very good stats.

google analytics

It really depends on how serious you want to track things. If you just want an idea and something that's going to be 'close' to accurate these free online systems are ok. But if you want true tracking on true stats with definite numbers NO online service is ever going to be as accurate as something that parses your webserver logs.

So you really need to decide how serious you are about accuracy. If you just want a basic general idea? I'd say Google Analytics. If you want a REAL stat tracking system? AW Stats is without question more accurate and more flexible than anything I've seen recommended in this thread.

EDIT: it looks like interspire trackpoint is a real log parsing program (just glanced at it) so it will be more accurate than any of these online trackers too.

Update:

I wanted to do some testing and I found some interesting numbers.

I've got a site that gets a lot of traffic for a program I wrote. I track the numbers with AWstats which has been configured specifically for this domain, and is very accurate.

Google analytics shows that i got 11,000+ pageviews yesterday. But the truth is, I got a LOT more.. Keep in mind, this is one day. Yesterday, so you'll look at the date 8/28 on the awstats page.


So it would seem that the busier your site the less accurate google is.

Google
http://www.fastnoc.com/stuff/3.gif

AWstats
http://www.fastnoc.com/stuff/4.gif

http://www.fastnoc.com/stuff/3.gif

Try also www.eyesontraffic.com. A handy little program that lets you watch people visit your website and surf it's pages in real time :)

Can http://adwatcher.com/ do that?

For free Google Analytics is great. I also recommend Awstats on the server.