AWStats summarises requests recorded by the web server, including visits, pages, file requests and transfer volume. Its figures can differ from browser analytics because bots, blocked scripts, caching and measurement definitions affect the two data sources differently.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Information to have ready
Confirm the domain you want to analyse and the reporting period. Statistics must be enabled on the server, and recently added domains may need a scheduled processing cycle before meaningful history appears.
01 Read SiteWorx website traffic reports in AWStats
- Open Statistics > AWStats in SiteWorx and select the intended domain or available report.
- Check the displayed month, year and last-update time before interpreting a sudden rise or fall.
- Compare visits and pages with hits and bandwidth. One page can request many assets, so a high hit count is not the same as that many people visiting.
- Review the most requested URLs, status codes, referrers and robot activity to understand the source of traffic.
- For a specific incident, compare the report with current or archived access logs and the relevant application or CDN analytics. Export or record the useful period before retention removes older data.
02 Example: four requests do not mean four visitors
If the origin records one HTML request plus a stylesheet and two image requests, that page load contributes four recorded requests. It does not prove that four people visited. Compare the report's visits and pages separately, then inspect robot activity and the reporting period before attributing a higher hit count to audience growth.
Confirm the expected result
A plausible report should correspond to the correct domain and time window. Use it to identify patterns and questions, then confirm individual errors or unusual requests in logs.
Why is the AWStats report empty or out of date?
If the report is empty or stale, check whether requests reached this origin and whether statistics processing is enabled. CDN-served cache hits may not reach the origin at all. Ask support about processing failures rather than deleting statistics directories or forcing repeated jobs.