Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data, such as visitors and page views, to understand and improve a website. Its tools read Server log files or run JavaScript tags in each page. Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are on-site web analytics services.
History of Analytics
Creator: No single creator. IPRO released the first commercial log analyzer in 1994. Year: 1994.
In the early 1990s, most site statistics counted hits. A hit is a request made to a web server. One HTML file made this count useful. Pages then began to use images and many files. The count became less useful. IPRO released the first commercial log analyzer in 1994, according to Wikipedia.
In the mid-1990s, two units came into use: page views and visits. A page view counts a request for a page, not an image. A visit counts a set of requests from one client. A visit ends after a set period with no activity, usually 30 minutes. Web counters showed the number of requests for an image on a page. They were also common then.
In the late 1990s, page tagging began. A small invisible image sent data about the page and the visitor by JavaScript. An analytics company processed the data far away. Search engine spiders and robots also appeared then. They made it harder to count real human visitors. Log analyzers began to track visits with cookies. They also began to ignore known spiders.
Page tagging services give each visitor a cookie. The cookie lets the service know the visitor during a visit. It also works in later visits. Many vendors set third-party cookies from their own domain. Most vendors now offer first-party cookies as an option. A first-party cookie comes from the domain of the site being visited.
Wikipedia names two ways to collect data: server log file analysis and page tagging. Some companies use both. They call this a hybrid method. Log files also record visits from search engine crawlers. Page tags usually miss them, because many crawlers do not run JavaScript.
Changelog and latest update
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the newer product from Google. Google's help page says GA4 has replaced Universal Analytics. It stopped processing hits for standard properties on 1 July 2023. Access to its historical data ended on 1 July 2024. Access to its interface and application programming interface (API) ended then too. The same page says this.
On 29 January 2024, Google said some of these features would be deprecated. It would focus on GA4 instead. Universal Analytics 360 properties got a processing extension. It ended on 1 July 2024. Google told users to export their data before that date. Otherwise the data would be deleted.
Google's What's new page lists 2026 releases. Dashboards arrived on 9 September 2026. They show key performance indicators (KPIs) on one report. Hostname Include filters came on 21 September 2026. They build an allowlist of domains. Those domains may send event data to a property.
Latest update: Google Analytics What's new, October 5, 2026, 2026-10-05
The What's new page lists a User Groups Admin API. It was released on 5 October 2026. The API manages user groups and their members. It covers Google Analytics properties and accounts. The page says these features need User Admin or Org Admin permissions.
Usage examples
Most sites add analytics with a tag in the page code. The tag sends a request each time a page loads. The analytics service then counts the visit. The three examples show the GA4 configuration script. They also show a count of visits per client from a server log. The last example is a Python count of page requests from the same log. Replace the measurement ID and file names with your own values.
window.dataLayer ??= [];
function gtag() {
dataLayer.push(arguments);
}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXX');This script creates the data layer that Google Analytics 4 reads. It then sends the page view to the property with the measurement ID G-XXXXXXX. The gtag.js library loads separately from Google. The gtag config call sends a page view each time the page loads. So each visit is counted.
awk '{print $1}' access.log \
| sort | uniq -c | sort -rn \
| head -5This command reads the Apache log file and takes the first field of each line. That field is the client address. It counts the requests from each address. Then it sorts the counts and prints the five highest. The result is a log file analysis of visitors. It is the older method of web analytics.
import collections
hits = collections.Counter()
for line in open("access.log"):
req = line.split('"')[1].split()
hits[req[1]] += 1
print(hits.most_common(5))This script reads the same log file. It takes the request line, which sits between the first pair of quote marks. The second field of that line is the requested path. The script counts the requests for each path. It prints the five most requested paths with their counts.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Web analytics
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on web analytics. It defines the field, describes the on-site and off-site categories, and lists the standard metrics such as bounce rate and page views. It covers the history of log file analysis and page tagging, with citations.
What's new in Google Analytics
Google Analytics Help
The Google page that lists each release of Google Analytics by date. The page includes entries from 2026, such as Dashboards on 9 September 2026 and the User Groups Admin API on 5 October 2026. It is the primary source for the latest product updates.
Google Analytics 4 has replaced Universal Analytics
Google Analytics Help
The Google help page on the migration from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. It gives the dates of the shutdown, from the processing stop on 1 July 2023 to the end of data access on 1 July 2024. It also explains how to export data before the shutdown.
Google Analytics 4 developer guide
Google for Developers
The developer documentation for Google Analytics 4 data collection. It explains how a site sends events to a GA4 property with the gtag.js library and the measurement ID. It also covers the Measurement Protocol for server-side events.
Log analysis
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on log analysis, the process of reading the messages that computers write in a log. It describes a log as a stream of messages in time sequence, stored in files or sent over a network. It gives the background for reading web server logs in web analytics.
Launch day is when the numbers start
On launch day, a new site starts receiving visits, and the analytics code must already be in place to record them. We add the tracking tag to each page, test that it fires and confirm that the numbers reach the right account before the site goes live.
We have worked in web design for more than 20 years. That experience shows us where tracking usually breaks: on forms, on the thank-you page and on pages that load slowly. We check each of those places before launch, so the first visits are counted.
The domain and CMS hosting bundle is one order. It has $24.99 for the domain and $149 a year for hosting. Our hosting runs at 99.999% uptime, so the numbers keep arriving while visitors reach your site.
Tell us which visits matter most, such as calls, form messages or quote requests. We will set the tracking to count those first, and the counts will show whether the site brings calls. Phone 402-813-4034 any day, or see the $300 website below to begin.
