Since its inception Google Analytics has always been reputed as an excellent web analytics reporting tool.  They are continually providing new interfaces to analyze data.  Best of all they are completely free.   In fact SEO Prodigy believes that Google Analytics is a must have for any webmaster, no matter how small or big.

However lately we have begun to question Google Analytics' reporting accuracy.  We were quite shocked to observe large discrepancies in our clients local hosts web analytics stats and Google Analytics stats.  While we are confident of trusting my host stats, since, they are more precise in reporting bot visits, page load time, page view time, etc.  We are finding that several of our clients are really getting a higher volume of traffic and more importantly, goal conversions being reported on their back host management as to opposed what Google Analtyics tells them.

Our advice to you on Web Analytics!

Don’t count on Google Analytics reporting completely.  It provides extremely valuable data of where your main traffic sources are coming and easy comparison benchmark function that allows you to measure your website promotion performance.  However if you really concerned about getting accurate web analytics variables, such as cost per acquisition (how much you spend to acquire a lead or sale) we recommend using a paid third party software such as Web Trends.