Error Codes

It’s worth noting that Google Analytics, by its nature, doesn’t collect information
on HTTP errors. Those errors are part of the log file, and Google Analytics
doesn’t look at logs. The only real point of interest is the 404 “not found”
errors. If you click the 404 link, it’ll take you to a page such as Figure 3-21 that
lists all the URLs for the pages visitors requested that could not be found.
The web server will know where to send visitors looking for those pages. If
the URL is pointing to an old name that no longer exists, or shows that there’s
a misspelling in your HTML, you can fix it. On the other hand, it may be an
attack on your web server if the URL isn’t familiar (especially if it contains
funny characters like \x05), or if the URL has a long, long string of nonsense
after it, or if it contains things like admin or .dll, which you don’t have on
your web site. But unless those attacks are successful or overwhelming in
number, you’re probably safe in ignoring them.

We’re Done!

We made it! Now that we’ve tied up all the loose ends and, we hope, taught
you all the basics, it’s time to move on to Google Analytics. You’ll see, as you
go on, more of what Google Analytics can do that AWStats can’t, but you’ll
also see that what you’ve learned about AWStats is valuable in itself.
Onward!