How-to · Beginner · 20 minutes
How to Read Your Website Statistics
Everything you need to read your traffic straight from the server's own logs, with nothing to install — the steps in order, the snag to watch, and the tip our support desk gives everybody.
Straight answer first
The job: read your traffic straight from the server's own logs, with nothing to install. Time to allow: 20 minutes. Skill needed: beginner.
The walkthrough below covers every step, the mistake most people make, and the shortcut worth keeping. On Hosting Seller plans several of these steps are already done for you, and we say where.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 1 August 2026
Beginner
Skill needed
5
Stages to finish
Free
Help included
Tested
On our own kit
This guide assumes no expertise at all — just a hosting account, a browser and 20 minutes of attention. Every instruction works on our platform exactly as written, and carries over to any standard cPanel host.
One promise before you start: nothing in this guide is irreversible. Where a step could bite, we say so and give you the undo.
The overview before the detail
Here is the route in full: find the stats in your panel, read the shape before the totals, split the humans from the bots, read the three lists that matter and add analytics for the behaviour side.
No stage needs code or a terminal unless the guide says so outright, and where it does, the exact commands are printed. The full step-by-step sits below; the sections around it give the context that makes it stick.
Read this before the first click
Holding AWStats up against Google Analytics and deciding one of them must be broken. They count different things — every request including bots, versus consenting browsers that ran a script. The gap is built into the definitions.
It is worth learning because it is not some rare edge case — it is the single most common reason this task turns into a support ticket. Knowing it up front turns the whole job from risky into routine.
The trick worth borrowing
The 404 list is the actionable part of server stats. Every repeat 404 is a real visitor hitting a wall, and most of them are cured by a single redirect each and never come back.
Small habits like this are the real difference between people who find hosting easy and people who find it stressful. The tools are identical; the working method is not.
What runs by itself here
We have automated the steps that do not deserve your time: certificates issue and reissue themselves, the installer handles application setup, the daily backup covers the what-if, and per-site settings live in a panel instead of a config file. The guide above covers what remains — the part that is actually about your site.
Stuck halfway through at an odd hour? That is exactly what round-the-clock human support is for — tell us where you are in this guide and we will pick it up from there.
Why the job is simpler on our plans
Tutorials age badly when they are written against imaginary hosting. These are written against ours: the same panel, the same installer and the same defaults you will meet.
NVMe disks and LiteSpeed caching sit on the shelf at every price point, not behind a premium tier.
- Step by step, tested exactly as printed
- The snag flagged before you reach it
- The dull steps are already automated
- People on hand at any hour if you stall
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
Works exactly as written
Every step tested on the platform we run — no 'your host may differ' hand-waving anywhere.
Automation where it belongs
SSL, backups and installs run themselves here, so the guide covers only what is genuinely yours to do.
Written from real tickets
Our guides come off the support desk, so the snags flagged here are the ones people genuinely hit.
Scoped honestly
Read your traffic straight from the server's own logs, with nothing to install is a beginner-level task — this guide budgets 20 minutes and says which steps the platform absorbs.
The undo is always named
Where a step could bite, the guide says so and tells you how to put it back again.
5 steps, no filler
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, with the fiddly parts marked as fiddly.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Find the stats in your panel
AWStats and the raw access logs sit in cPanel's Metrics section. Server-side figures, with no snippet to add, no consent banner and nothing at all to set up.
- 2
Read the shape before the totals
The trend across months, the rhythm of the week, the pages people land on. Shape tells you the story; a single day's number mostly tells you the weather.
- 3
Split the humans from the bots
Server stats count crawlers generously. AWStats has a robots section showing how much of that traffic is machinery, which is why analytics tools always report a smaller, human-filtered number.
- 4
Read the three lists that matter
Top entry pages tell you what pulls people in, the 404 list tells you what is broken, and referrers tell you who is linking to you. Worth a skim once a month.
- 5
Add analytics for the behaviour side
Server logs count requests; analytics tools follow journeys. Run both and stay clear in your head about which question each one is answering.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP for your own client
- SSH, Git and Composer on the plans built for developers
- A 30-day money-back guarantee on every hosting plan
- WebP image optimisation built in and costing nothing
- Site migration done for you by our staff, at no charge
- A 99.9% uptime commitment, watched by monitoring day and night
- The renewal price printed on the tag matches the order price
- WordPress Toolkit, with updates applied for you
- Staging copies so changes get tested before they go live
- A free SSL certificate on every plan, reissued before it lapses
Across the Counter
The questions we get asked most
Why is AWStats always higher than Google Analytics?
AWStats counts every request, including bots, crawlers and people whose browser blocked the script. Analytics counts consenting browsers that ran it. Both are honest about a different question: machine load on one side, human audience on the other.
Can I get by on server stats alone?
For plenty of sites, yes. Traffic shape, top content, referrers and errors answer most owners' questions with no privacy overhead whatsoever. Add client-side analytics when you need to follow journeys and conversions through the site.
Can I set the PHP version myself?
Yes — PHP versions are chosen per site from the control panel, so an old application and a current one can sit side by side on the same account. Extensions and per-site settings live in the same screen, and none of it needs a support ticket.
Can I test changes somewhere safe first?
Yes — plans with staging let you clone the live site, work on the copy, then push it across when you are satisfied. It is the difference between hoping an update behaves and knowing that it does before any customer meets it.
Is the SSL certificate genuinely free?
On every plan, with nothing held back. The certificate is issued the moment your domain points here and reissues itself well before expiry. The encryption is the same as a paid DV certificate — paid tiers exist only for wildcard coverage or organisation validation, which most sites never need.
How quickly can I be up and running?
Minutes, not days. The account opens the moment the order clears, the domain — free for year one on annual plans — attaches straight away, and the one-click installer puts WordPress or any of 400+ applications on the page before you leave your chair. Already have a site elsewhere? Hand it over and we move it free, usually inside a day.
What happens to my files if I leave?
The site and the files stay yours. Pull a full backup from the panel whenever you like, before or during cancellation. Domains remain registered in your name for the term you paid for and can move to any registrar once the standard 60-day window has passed.
Read next
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A certificate issued, installed and renewing itself — usually without you lifting a finger — beginner level, about 0–20 minutes.
How to Secure Your Hosting Account
Lock down the one account that holds every site you run — beginner level, about 30 minutes.
Dedicated Servers
Bare metal, a control panel included, and bundles priced plainly.
Domain Names
Search, register and transfer names — year one free with annual hosting.
Packing up and moving host? Take our checklist.
A plain running order for a move nobody notices: what to copy first, how to carry email across without dropping a single message, when to point DNS, and the two slips behind nearly every hour of downtime we get called about.
Do the launch properly this time.
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