OT versus awstats?

Problem:

why use Opentracker if I get log stats for free?

Solution:

The main difference between the two systems is that we specialize in tracking unique visitors over long periods of time.

So, for example, you are able to see what visitors who came in with specific keywords, search terms, or from specific links, did on your site.

On our Recent & online visitors screen you can actually see, "live" everybody who is on your site. You can explore their clickstreams, answer questions like, what do people who enter your site with "SAMPLE SEARCH TERM" actually do.

We have written a short article that explains the main differences between log analysis (awstats) and tracking systems (opentracker), which is posted here:

http://www.opentracker.net/pages/tracking-vs-log.jsp

What can be gleaned from this info, and the reason that we designed opentracker, is to manage your content & make updates. The Bounce rate, for example, is very good for showing you, graphically, what impact any changes that you make have.

The specific information that we can provide you with is to tell you how people move around your site. This type of information can be used to understand & decide what changes to make: you will see how long people stay on what pages: how they move from page to page. How well you use the information lagerly depends on what you decide that you are interested in accomplishing. Opentracker is very well suited to answer specific questions. We provide analysis for our subscribers, upon request, meaning that we often receive emails from people who would like to analyze, for example, an ad campaign that they are running. We are able to provide very specific information regarding the efficicacy of such campaigns.

I suppose that, to asnwer your question directly, two things can be gleaned:

1. Understanding what the information is actually telling you: often, going through statistics, and asking yourself: what does this mean?, can be a very rewarding process, in terms of stimulating new ideas and perspectives.

2. The answer depends very much on the direction and planning that you have in mind for your site. For example, we can measure changes over time, and hence evaluate changes. If you would tell us what you would like to achieve, we would be able to offer you guidance, based on your existing stats.

I hope these ideas are of some help, please do not hesitate to respond with any questions or feedback.