javascript tracking or web log analytics?

JavaScript Tracking or Web Log Analytics?How do these two tracking methods differ and which one is more suitable for your organization?

How it works

JavaScript Tracking or Web Log Analytics?

Introduction to JavaScript Tracking


JavaScript Tracking

JS Tracking has earned recognition as the most comprehensive tracking method and is valued for

delivering high-quality insights to users, but also for its extensive customization capabilities.


Which web analytics vendors collect data with JS Tracking?


JavaScript Tracking should be the default choice because of its extensive

customizability, accuracy, and ease of management.


Introduction to Web Log Analytics


Web Log Analytics

Web Analytics allows you to collect web server log files and import them into your analytics platform for viewing, analyzing, and reporting. It is recommended

for superior security and data protection.


Which web analytics vendors use Web Log Analytics to collect data?


Use Web Log Analytics when:

• your organization handles great amounts of sensitive data

• you need to track activity of a particular server

• you want to analyze historical data from your log files

• your website contains too many pages and you don’t want to place JS tags on every single one of them

• you want to track users with JavaScript turned off


Let’s move to the differences between JS Tracking and

Web Log Analytics


Event Tracking

JavaScript Tracking • Can track events and user

interactions like page views and downloads.

Web Log Analytics • Events are not tracked in

http server logs, but it can precisely track downloads


Single Page Tracking

JavaScript Tracking • Can track single pages

accurately.

Web Log Analytics • It may be challenging to

achieve with Log Analytics, as the data provided by logs may be hard for the marketer or analyst to read. They will only see the URLs of API calls, which may not mean anything.


Device Tracking

JavaScript Tracking • Tracks page titles, browser

resolutions, and installed plugins.

Web Log Analytics • This is not the case with log

analytics, as the relevant data is not available in the server http log files.


Unique Visitor Tracking

JavaScript Tracking • Uses both first-party

cookies and browser fingerprint in order to accurately identify unique visitors.

Web Log Analytics • Doesn’t use cookies,

therefore cannot identify unique users. Log analytics cannot accurately calculate returning visitors, visitor recency, number of visits to conversion and other metrics related to your users' loyalty.


Data Transparency

JavaScript Tracking • JS Tracking provides you

with clean and reliable data.

Web Log Analytics • Log analytics analyzes all

http server calls. There is quite a bit of work required to filter out URLs that are not relevant (like calls from monitoring systems or single page app API calls).


Anchor URL Tracking

JavaScript Tracking • Can easily track anchor

URLs.

Web Log Analytics • Cannot track anchor URLs

(like https://piwik.pro/contact/#contact-form): the #contact-form part is not passed to the server by the browser.


Tag Implementation

JavaScript Tracking • JS Tracking code must be

placed on every page of your website.

Web Log Analytics • Does not require tracking

code (JavaScript tag) on the website.


Bandwidth Analytics

JavaScript Tracking • Bandwidth usage cannot

be tracked, because the information is not provided by the web server to the browser client.

Web Log Analytics • It can also be used for

bandwidth analytics of how much bandwidth each website generates.


Historical Data Access

JavaScript Tracking • You get access to data

collected only from the moment of implementation of your analytics software.

Web Log Analytics • You can process historical

data even if you didn’t previously have any analytics system in place.


Download Tracking

JavaScript Tracking • Downloads and other

events from the website may not be registered if the user has a slow connection or JavaScript disabled.

Web Log Analytics • Information from the http

server lets us reliably track all downloads.


Ad Blocker Resistance

JavaScript Tracking • It may be blocked by ad

blockers or other browser plugins such as Ghostery.

Web Log Analytics • Resistant to ad blockers

and tracks browsers with disabled JavaScript - we analyze data from the http web server, so the log analytics method always knows about requests made to the server.


Security

JavaScript Tracking • Anyone who access your

server can essentially inject any code into your website, capture data from users that leave it on the website, etc. Moreover, JS Tracking requires adding external files into the website. This may not be feasible for many organizations due to data security considerations.

Web Log Analytics • The log analytics server

can be separated from the website for better security. Banks, healthcare and other data-sensitive industries take advantage of this capability.


Note that both methods can be customized to meet your particular

needs.


Our experts will be happy to provide you with more details.


https://piwik.pro/contact/?pk_campaign=Slideshare_WebLog_JS&pk_medium=Slides&pk_source=Slideshare












You can also review our concise infographic comparing Web Log

Analytics and JS Tracking


https://piwik.pro/2016/10/infographic-javascript-tracking-web-log-analytics/?pk_campaign=Slideshare_WebLog_JS&pk_medium=Slides&pk_source=Slideshare












Thank YouPiwik PRO provides an analytics and tag management suite tailored to the individual needs of enterprise clients. Our main products are deployed in both on-premises and cloud versions, and each of them adheres to the strictest privacy and security regulations while ensuring our partners retain full data ownership. http://piwik.pro

http://piwik.pro

javascript tracking or web log analytics?

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