Recommend Web Analytics?

Marketing
1

I recently got an e-mail from GoDaddy saying they are doing away with their “Site Analytics” software on December 19th. :frowning:

Personally, I have been very happy with it, and think it is better than Google Analytics because it focused on things like: Visitors Per Day, Visitor IP’s, Visitor Locations, Pages Visited, Time On Pages, Page Referral, etc versus all of Google’s confusing Search Stats?!

Since I am about done with v2.0 of my website - which will be much more dynamic and hopefully have more traffic - I am in need of a great Web Analytics package, but also one that doesn’t cost tons of $$$?!

Can you guys make some suggestions?

If anyone runs a successful website with lots of traffic, maybe you can speak from experience about what I should focus on?

Thanks,

Debbie

2

I have heard Jiraffe is good. Did you check that? I am comfortable with Google Analytics so far.

3

Google analytics does all of what you list above, plus a whole lot more (ties in with ad campaigns, conversion funnels, shareable with 3rd parties, create custom dashboards and extract data with their api)

I’d recommend spending some time learning google analytics, in particular custom dahsboards if you feel you’re not getting the data presented how you like. Here’s a good place to start to see what can be done: http://www.customreportsharing.com

4

I just went into my Google Analytics account after like a 3 month vacation, and I do not recognize thing one in there?!

Furthermore, it says that I have had 1 visitor in 3 months which is totally wrong?! :eek:

GoDaddy sent me this list…

There are plenty of other Web analytics options available. Here’s a few:

AWStats – http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
Chartbeat – http://chartbeat.com/
Clicky – http://getclicky.com/
Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/
GoSquared – http://www.gosquared.com/
Open Web Analytics – http://www.openwebanalytics.com/
Piwik – http://piwik.org/
Reinvigorate – https://www.reinvigorate.net/
Woopra – http://www.woopra.com/

I was looking at Open Web Analytics last night, and it looks pretty good… (Especially since it it Open-Source!!)

Debbie

5

Google Analytic is good, it provides accurate information, if your site doesn’t have visitors then how can it tell?

Anyway, these two are very powerful in my knowledge:

GoogleAnalytic
StatCounter

6

Because it used to show analytics before Goggle apparently re-did everythng. And because I get daily analytics via GoDaddy, so I know that the Google Analytics is now broken.

Apparently we don’t have any users here that have used Google Analytics for very long or very seriously… If we did, then I would expect someone to note that Google apparently trashed their old Google Analytics for a new one.

When I logged into my Google Analytics account, it was like looking at some FOREIGN website?! :eek:

I’m not sure how it compares to what Google had 6-12 months ago, or how it compares to other “Analytics packages”, but it certainly looks UN-intuitive and like there is a lot of reading to do before you can use it… sigh (Also, appraently Google just trashed a year of my data, although I obviously won’t miss that too much, since I gave up logging in and decided GoDaddy’s offering was better…)

That is one thing I will miss about GoDaddy’s Site Analytics, is that it was quick and easy to use, and pretty intuitive.

Again, if there are any people out there who run businesses or are in charge of websites where $$$ is involved, I would appreciate some expert advice on what are the best “Analytics” packages out there, and what kinds of factors I should use when picking one.

I’m sure I could spend the next year reading up on SEO and Analytics and so on, but I’d rather not “re-invent the wheel”, since this subject is probably pretty mature.

Sincerely,

Debbie

7

There are some alternatives suggested in this thread, starting around post #21.

8

You’ll find that the vast majority of sites use Google Analytics both at the small business level and these days up to a good part of enterprise. However as you’ve excluded them from your list most of us aren’t much help to your quandary.

Google regularly works on it, updates it and changes it. But it’s the same structure they’ve had for years.

GA is complex but IMO that’s why I use it. You can log in, glance around, and get a few insights but it’s the complexity that makes it useful in letting you see not just the results but the factors that got you there. That said the interface could be better. The features could be expanded. And the documentation could be improved. It’s by no means perfect nor 100% comprehensive but it is the best free to low priced tool I know of by a ong shot.

9

Really?

What is Google’s “angle”?

What is in it for Google to offer a good-to-great Analytics package?

However as you’ve excluded them from your list most of us aren’t much help to your quandary.

No, you missed my point…

I was saying that my previous experience with Google Analytics (i.e. maybe 9-12 months ago) was that it was frustrating to work with, and not very helpful…

Apparently no one that has responded so far used the same version I did, or if so, then we have different objective…

What I recall of the previous Google Analytics was lots of lists and charts telling me about Search Words that had nothing to do with my website and how they ranked?!

It would show me things like that I ranked high on searches for “paperclip” even when the keyword was nowhere in my Site’s Content or Code?! (And I have spent SUBSTANTIAL time here at SitePoint making sure my web pages are Semantically correct and properly coded/marked-up!!!)

When I last used Google Analytics, I poked around A LOT and I just couldn’t find how to get the most fundamental information I needed. (Without having GoDaddy’s Site Analytics" next to the Google Analytics version I had experience with, it is hard to compare them, but please trust me when I say my experience with Google was BLAH at best…

So moving forward, I never said I wouldn’t consider using Google Analytics, but based on my prior experience, and based on how confusing the interface looks today, I am finding it hard to want to invest my time earning the new version…

Google regularly works on it, updates it and changes it. But it’s the same structure they’ve had for years.

Not from my experience.

GA is complex but IMO that’s why I use it. You can log in, glance around, and get a few insights but it’s the complexity that makes it useful in letting you see not just the results but the factors that got you there.

I am not averse to complexity if it helps make my website better!!

That said the interface could be better. The features could be expanded. And the documentation could be improved. It’s by no means perfect nor 100% comprehensive but it is the best free to low priced tool I know of by a ong shot.

So what about something like…

http://www.openwebanalytics.com/

From the little I saw yesterday, Open Web Analytics look pretty comprehensive, and it too is free.

Sincerely,

Debbie

10

Advertiser Revenue. Information. Dominance.

Apparently no one that has responded so far used the same version I did, or if so, then we have different objective…

Unless Google ran completely different versions for select users I’m sure we used the same interface as I’ve been a user since it first launched. When GA was new [years ago] I critiqued it pretty hard and still prefer a few of the enterprise programs but over the years things have improved by leaps and bounds I’ve become a happy user for those cases where big software investments aren’t practical.

There are other tools and I’m sure some are quite good but now the only time I really go out looking is when there’s something GA doesn’t do like user insights or form field analysis.

When I last used Google Analytics, I poked around A LOT and I just couldn’t find how to get the most fundamental information I needed. (Without having GoDaddy’s Site Analytics" next to the Google Analytics version I had experience with, it is hard to compare them, [b]but please trust me when I say my experience with Google was BLAH at best…

So moving forward, I never said I wouldn’t consider using Google Analytics, but based on my prior experience, and based on how confusing the interface looks today, I am finding it hard to want to invest my time earning the new version…

Gotcha. I’ve clearly not had the same issues you experienced, can’t recall any search ranking charts in recent history except those of traffic you were actually getting, but that’s neither here nor there.

My point is simply that GA is so common place you’ll find far less input on other tools than you may have 3 or 4 years ago and less tools too as the market has contracted considerably.

I think if you dive in you’ll find a ton of functionality but if you don’t like the way it’s presented, accessed or just the model of it all that’s not going to be enough. There are however many, many GA users here that I’m sure would be happy to explain their experience if that helps you…

Update: Here’s a list of other tools I found in a quick search now that you’ve prompted me to see what’s still out there. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/7-alternatives-to-google-analytics/38764/

11

:rolleyes:

Well I’ve used GA since it was launched on 100’s of sites with millions of page views, from small business sites to billion dollar companies, monitoring international advertising campaigns, large adwords budgets etc and haven’t had any issues. Yes, it can get very complex, but with custom dashboards you can keep it very simple. GA is flexible and professional enough for the largest corporate and global companies, and is sufficiently ubiquitous that for online marketing professionals it’s an essential tool, and to not have familiarity and competence in it’s use would be considered unusual.

12

Am I empowering “Big Brother” by using it? Should I feel guilty?

Unless Google ran completely different versions for select users I’m sure we used the same interface as I’ve been a user since it first launched.

I wish I knew what I was looking at a year ago, and that I had screen-shots.

It was all white, with grey text, and 70% of the interface seemed to deal with KEYWORDS, and how they supposedly related to my site.

Simple things like getting Visitor IP Addresses wasn’t any option, and I’m not even sure if I could get their Locations or Zip Codes.

I am sure I got it for free at Google Analytics.

And for now, I don’t know why it says I have had ZERO Visitors since this summer, when GoDaddy shows I have Visitors every day, although very few.

When GA was new [years ago] I critiqued it pretty hard and still prefer a few of the enterprise programs but over the years things have improved by leaps and bounds I’ve become a happy user for those cases where big software investments aren’t practical.

Are there any other Open-Source Analytics packages that can compete with Google, or are they the superior choice for under $10,000/year?!

Gotcha. I’ve clearly not had the same issues you experienced, can’t recall any search ranking charts in recent history except those of traffic you were actually getting, but that’s neither here nor there.

There were a handful of pages that revolved around all of these Keywords that related to my site. Like people apparently would be searching for obscure things like “Toasters” or “Girl in Hat” and it’d show that I 20% of the traffic came to me on those Keywords, and that I ranked #1,205 for them?! WTF?! :rolleyes:

My point is simply that GA is so common place you’ll find far less input on other tools than you may have 3 or 4 years ago and less tools too as the market has contracted considerably.

I think if you dive in you’ll find a ton of functionality but if you don’t like the way it’s presented, accessed or just the model of it all that’s not going to be enough. There are however many, many GA users here that I’m sure would be happy to explain their experience if that helps you…

So how long should it take me to install Google Analytics and understand it enough so it would be useful for a fledgling website and business?

Update: Here’s a list of other tools I found in a quick search now that you’ve prompted me to see what’s still out there. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/7-alternatives-to-google-analytics/38764/

I’ll go read that now.

Thanks!!

Debbie

13

Check that it’s installed correctly. If it is, it may be the case that godaddy stats are recording bot hits (most server log based stats apps do a poor job of filtering out bot noise) that won’t show up in GA as it’s only activated in a browser running javascript