Everyone who runs a website should be keeping track of the number of visitors they have. There are many tools that allows people to do this. WordPress, for example, has a built-in tool that gives you information such as page views, referrers, top posts, clicks (links clicked on your blog), and incoming links. Google Analytics also has a tool that you embed into the body of your pages that sends a request over to their trackers. Google Analytics is much more in-depth than WordPress is, and tracks things such as visitor trending, visitor loyalty, page views, visitors, unique visitors, absolute unique visitors, where hits came from, and much more. It also provides a look into the client’s machine, providing information on which browser they used, what speed their connection was, what OS they used, what version of Flash they have, etc.

It’s somewhat scary to see the amount of information that Google Analytics provides. For the hardcore web admins, it’s great to know exactly what your readers are using so you can customize your site to what the readers use. All in all, it provides web admins with all the information they need to know about their site and the people viewing it.

Since I have two stat trackers running, it’s interesting to compare the numbers between the two. For instance, WordPress reports my site had 934 page views on July 17. Google reports only 790 page views. The same is to be said with top post views; WordPress reports 694 hits on this article, while Google only reports 660. So what gives? Why are the numbers so different?

I assumed whatever stat tracker I installed on my site would be accurate. For as long as this site has been up, I’ve taken Google’s word as bond. Now I’ve been introduced to a level of uncertainty that I can’t explain. I will admit that for the most part, I’m micro-managing. After all, they’re just numbers, right? Wrong. I’ve seen the statistics and can tell which types of articles are more popular, and I try to write posts about that so people will come back and enjoy the site more. Stats are a driving force not just in blogging, but in the world as a whole.

So now I’m just confused. I feel a little like Luke Skywalker who’s trying to be convinced by Darth Vader to join the Dark Side (Google Analytics). Obi-Wan is telling me to trust my instincts and use The Force (WordPress Stats). OK, maybe I’m not as cool as Luke, nor is Vader really trying to woo me. And Obi-Wan, he’s just there because my imagination runs wild. Maybe I should seek the aid of Yoda, the stat tracker that is wise beyond its years and knows the truth. So, it’s off to Dagobah I go to find just that.