[joshyi]

I think a big problem with Google Analytics is accuracy, especially with the now so popular adblockers. Log analysis such as GoAccess should be able to track these down fine since it works at the server level.

I believe tracking visitors at the client level deflates the actual number of visitors. On the other hand, server-side tracking gives you a more accurate number at the cost of not knowing for sure if the client is a human behind a browser.

[tyingq]

You can programmatically send hits to GA from your server, and get the benefit of the nice UI.