Who are you and where are you from?

March 15, 2011 5:45 PM

My website's host has the worst visitor statistics. Is there an easy solution to (non-invasively) figuring out where people come from?

I'd rather not use google analytics (and submit code onto hundreds of page). Is there a free mac friendly program that I can drop my log files into and get a graphic spit out of visitors (numbers and where they came from in the aggregate)?
Bonus points if a moron, myself, can operate it?

Thanks.

posted by history is a weapon to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Looks like you're using 1&1. Does anything in this post (or the posts that answers link to) help?
posted by backwards guitar at 6:02 PM on March 15, 2011

Response by poster: awstats requires ssh, which I do not believe we have. AND it gets no bonus points due to it looking really difficult.
posted by history is a weapon at 6:38 PM on March 15, 2011

How come you don't want to use GA?
posted by ben242 at 7:28 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am not positive that this will work, but can you do a global Server-Side Include to insert a footer on every page in your domain? Googling hasn't told me definitively if it will work or will not work.
posted by misterbrandt at 8:59 PM on March 15, 2011

Do you have hundreds of plain static HTML files, then? If you are using a CMS or any kind of blogging system or anything, you should be able to pretty easily put the Google Analytics code in the right place in the template and be done with it....
posted by sharding at 9:02 PM on March 15, 2011

(I am assuming that this is a zillion static html pages, based on your question. If not, there are easier ways than trying to do the global SSI thing)
posted by misterbrandt at 9:05 PM on March 15, 2011

Response by poster: I'd rather not use google analytics because I don't like depending upon outside services that may change, as opposed to a program that I install and simply have.
Is there not a way to drop the log files into something?
And yes, hundreds of static pages, no cms (it works, loads quick and easy, and has few downsides except for moments like this)
posted by history is a weapon at 12:36 AM on March 16, 2011

Here's a simple one, if a bit outdated.

Sawmill is another option, but is web-based, so you'll need to host it on your server.
posted by iamscott at 12:44 AM on March 16, 2011

Well,you could install Piwik, an open source web analytics package that is google-analytics-like.
posted by Good Brain at 8:38 AM on March 16, 2011

Yeah, Piwik or Open Web Analytics.
posted by brainwane at 10:07 AM on March 16, 2011

Fair enough RE: GA. The search term you want is "log file analyzer". (or "viewer") I don't have a personal recommendation for you, unfortunately.
posted by misterbrandt at 11:55 AM on March 16, 2011

I use www.statcounter.com - I have had it for a few years and it seems very stable. Just one bit of code to put on the main homepage and there you go. I use the free version, yet their tech support are marvellous - when I had a problem (my fault!) they fixed it within hours. I know you don't particularly want an outside option, but I just wanted to chime in with this as it's useful, gives me information I need, friendly and trustworthy.
posted by LyzzyBee at 1:04 AM on March 17, 2011

If you want something to process your log files, I heartily recommend Analog. I've used it on several sites and always liked it a lot.
posted by kristi at 10:29 AM on March 17, 2011