In any business, tracking statistics and interpreting the data in order to make good choices can be said to be one of the most pivotal reasons why the business will succeed or fail.
Businesses from big to small regularly take diligent spread sheets, tracking sales, stock, upcoming orders, expenses, and much more, so that they can successfully see where their business is headed and what changes they mind need to implement.
Without a good analytics system, a web business is flying blind.
- Google Analytics
The analytic tools that most people start with, and for good reason: it’s not a bad tool at all, it gives relevant information, and it’s free. Google Analytics also has a lot of great features that most people don’t take the time to use effectively. One is about 50 resources for getting to know the ins and outs of Google Analytics, and another is about 9 awesome techniques that can use while utilizing this entirely free tool.
- Clicky
Clicky Analytics (located at Getclicky.com) has been making waves in the analytics biz since it was released, and is often the first toll that users migrate over to from Google Analytics. All in all, if an overall analytics package which offers access or real time data, it can’t recommend another choice over Clicky at the moment, but don’t let it stop it from reading the rest of the list, as this is just a personal favorite.
- Mint
Mint Analytics is one of the favorite new analytics tools, and it comes at a great price, since it is the only tools on the list that only have to pay once for. Mint is largely comparable to the other overall analytic tools on this list that cover a bit of a premium price, but is the only one that features a upfront cost with no recurring fees.
- Church Analytics
Created by one of the original developers of the Standard Theme Framework, this analytics toll has one of the most beautiful interfaces that can be seen. Church Analytics is a relatively new competitor on the scene. It is definitely a solid system built by people who know what they are doing.
- KISSmetrics
KISSmetrics is started by a couple of bright guys, one of who’s blog that can be enjoyed which it might be heard of, called QuickSprout. KISSmetrics offers a great system for getting to know visitors, although it would place it more in line for online commerce business over blogs.
- Open Web Analytics
Open Web Analytics focuses on the simplicity of their tool and the open source nature of it as well. If you are looking for something free, something effective, and enjoy working with open source software Open Web Analytics is the way to go.
- Clicktale
To know how customers are interacting with a site, it can literally view exactly what interactions they’ve had with a site by using Clicktale.
- Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is another company from Neil Patel (current KISSmetrics co-owner) and offers a lot of visual ways to see how people are navigating on a site. This tool offers a few “maps” from which it can choose to see how visitors are browsing: Heatmap, Scrollmap, Confetti and Overlay.
- Piwik
Piwik touts itself as being another open source option to Google Analytics; it provides a similar dataset, so it can say that it is comparable to Google Analytics, with the emphasis on the open source nature of the project.
- CloudFlare
It seems to be an overall strong addition to any site, even the free package, as it promotes itself as a product that scans sites for security, utilizes technology to improve site speed, and gives an insight on visitors with analytics.
Leave a Reply