Don't let AWStats trick you into thinking you're getting traffic.

[MixMaster]

Just a quick PSA because it took me too long to realize this for myself.

Before I started using paid analytics services I was just using the built-in AWStats in cPanel. I saw that I was getting 10,000 hits a day on a site when I didn't even know what I was doing, I got all cocky thinking "Damn this shit's easy" and then I realized it's 99.99% bots and crawlers and not actual visitors. Don't fall into that same trap!

 

[Ryuzaki]

Same goes for default Google Analytics and other tracker's unfiltered set ups. You'll be looking at bot traffic, spam traffic, ghost referral traffic, spiders, and more.

 

[Darth]

GA is heck of a lot of more accurate than awStats though.... Geez that's going back a while!

 

[emp]

GA is heck of a lot of more accurate than awStats though.... Geez that's going back a while!

Quite the opposite over here, but yeah... you have to make sure to block all kinds of crap in any platform.

::emp::

 

[enslam]

I've also found that the unfiltered GA stats are horrible. Out by up to 500% some days.