Understanding the different web analytics tools available is crucial for accurately tracking and interpreting your website's traffic. This article delves into the differences between Statcounter and Google Analytics, two popular analytics tools. It explains why Ezoic does not accept Statcounter data as proof of traffic and highlights the unique advantages of Google Analytics and Ezoic's Big Data Analytics. By the end of this article, you'll have a clearer understanding of how these tools measure traffic differently and why some are preferred over others for specific purposes.

What is Statcounter?

Statcounter is a server-side paid analytics package that provides an overview of user activity on a website. The available reports include browser reports, device type, landing pages, location, page views, and traffic sources.

Why doesn't Ezoic accept Statcounter data as proof of traffic?

Despite its widespread use, Ezoic does not accept Statcounter data as proof of traffic when evaluating websites for monetization. This discrepancy arises from the differences in how various analytics tools track data. Statcounter's methods tend to count everything, including bots that send requests to the server and pages that were requested but never fully loaded. This can result in inflated traffic statistics compared to other tools like Google Analytics or Ezoic's Big Data Analytics.

Ezoic specifically requires read-only access to Google Analytics to verify traffic for monetization purposes. This is because Google Analytics provides a more accurate measure of genuine user activity.

Ezoic's Big Data Analytics is considered to provide the most accurate reports since it tracks data at the DNS level rather than through a script, reducing the likelihood of inflated statistics.

For further information, users are encouraged to review this resource on how Big Data Analytics works and why it provides different metrics compared to Google Analytics.

1. Verify Traffic with Google Analytics: When applying for Ezoic monetization, ensure that you have read-only access set up for your Google Analytics account. This allows the Ezoic Platform Quality team to verify your site’s traffic and ensure it meets the required threshold.
2. Be Cautious of Bot Traffic: Statcounter may count bot traffic and pages that were requested but never fully loaded. As such, it’s important to cross-reference with other analytics tools to filter out this noise and get a more accurate picture of human traffic to your site.