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Log analytics

Log analytics, one of the earliest methods for server-side tracking, involves analyzing log data from your website. By using specialized software, you can import server-side logs from your web server to retrieve records that match specific criteria, helping you identify trends and analyze patterns in user behavior.

However, the information collected through server logs is more limited compared to client-side JavaScript data. Server logs don’t capture details like browser plugins, screen resolutions, or page titles, which can be valuable for analysis. Additionally, identifying visitors is more challenging because server logs don’t store information about cookies set in the user’s browser.

Lastly, maintaining log analytics is more difficult compared to newer methods like client-side and server-side tracking. Because of these challenges, log analytics is typically used by institutions that, for various reasons, cannot utilize the more convenient tracking technologies.

To learn more about data tracking methods in analytics, read this post: Server-side tracking and server-side tagging: The complete guide.

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