: IMHO comparing Web server logs file analysis to Google Analytics it's like comparing apples to pears. 1 day of server log file can be 1000 text lines to read through or more (depending on

IMHO comparing Web server logs file analysis to Google Analytics it's like comparing apples to pears.
1 day of server log file can be 1000 text lines to read through or more (depending on the number of visits on your site), this is totally unreadble unless you want to spend the rest of your life analyzing it line by line.

Google Analaytics can be somehow compared to another graphic tools to analyze your webistes' visists like the excellent Awstats which is included in the vast majority of all hosting plans (comes with cPanel). Awstats is based on server log analysis (as you mention in your question), but it shows you result in a graphical form very easy ot read.

Google Analytics vs Awstast (still IMO)

Google Analytics pros

more detailed,
you can setup goals and a bunch of other stuff,
you can easily track Adwords returns,
you can setup a recurring email with a snapshot of the Analytics to be sent to your customers

Google Analytics cons

too detailed (for small/mid sites
that do not care much about the
number of visits per day, but they can easily
quantify visists better and easier by
month view or even year view)
very slow to setup an account (slow panel irritating me and wasting my time)
requires you to place a snippet of Javascript code in ALL your webisites
pages (at least in the ones you want
to see in Analytics results), this is
another waste of time for me and it
slows down a bit your page renedering
(moreover you migt get somehow
irritating JS errors).
if you are sending them to your customer for free, what happens if one day Big G tells you that from now on you have to pay for them.

Awstast pros

Gives you out already more than
enough results to analyze (and easier
to read for your customers)
Very easy
to read by monthly and yearly visits.
You don't need to setup anything, it
comes with vast majority of
webhosting services (for sure with
all the ones with cPanel).
It shows
you also 404 errors due to broken
links to your site (also broken links
to your site coming from your site), so you can easily track them and fix your site links immediately.

Awstats cons

If you want ot exclude a page from
analysys you need to play with
Awstatst configuration on server
(easy once you have done it once, but
still harder than just removing a Js
snippet for the page/s you want ot
exclude)
If you want to see all the
bunch of stuff shown by Google
Analytics: goals, ROI, pingback, maps, and even
where was my mother when I was
visting your site, you simply can't!