I’m a Gemini, which basically makes me highly inquisitive and on a constant “need-to-know” basis. I love analyzing things, viewing statistics and solving mysteries. That probably explains my love of CSI Miami–I think it’s so cool how they solve crimes by analyzing the smallest bits of evidence and figuring out how they all fit together.
As a blog author (and former ecommerce website owner), that’s also why I love website statistics, programs that show who & what’s going on your website or blog. I’ve been a Google Analytics user for years and I’m still a big fan–but recently, I’ve discovered Alexa.com and Clicky, two more web stats programs that are, in Rhode Island speak, “wicked good”.
If you own a website or blog (and I’m guessing you do), you need to check out the features & benefits of Google Analytics, Alexa and Clicky and how these web stats programs can help you with your business.
Features
- Analyzes traffic by visitors, traffic sources, content, goals & more.
- Customized dashboard–arrange only the information you need on your dashboard.
- AdWords integration–use Google Analytics to find out which of your AdWords are most profitable to your business.
- Easy implementation–place a small snippet of code into your website pages and tracking begins immediately.
Benefits
- Google Analytics is free.
- Google Analytics data like monthly page views, unique visitors and bounce rate can help you attract advertisers to your site.
- Knowing where & when your customers leave your site can tell you why you may be losing or gaining sales. It can also show you which content is most popular & which isn’t–that’ll help you tweak your content appropriately, giving your readers more of what they love, less of what they don’t.
- See who’s talking about you–GA’s “top traffic sources” will tell you who your top referrers are and can help you discover press coverage that mentions you and websites that are linking to you.
- Help you hone your AdWords-if you’re spending money on Google AdWords, Google Analytics will help you see which ones are earning you the best return on investment. In this economy, you’ll want to earn the most bang for your advertising buck and Google Analytics will help you do that.
Features
- Offers a series of tools specifically for web site owners. These tools can help to drive traffic, make money, find broken links and more.
- Shows the websites that link into your website.
- Gives your website’s traffic rank globally, by country or by categories like business, arts, sports, health and more.
- Compares stats from different sites.
- Has a search bar that allows you to “find sites about”–just enter any keyword.
Benefits
- Alexa is a free site.
- As with Google Analytics, knowing your Alexa traffic rank will help you attract advertisers. The lower your traffic rank, the better–being in the top 100,000 websites is the goal.
- Gives you the chance to compare & contrast your stats with your competitor’s stats.
- Shows you what sites are linking into your site–the more sites linking into yours, the better–that usually improves your Alexa traffic rank.
- Measures your traffic over a 3-month period and gives you a chance to see your progress, an especially rewarding benefit for hardworking mogul moms!
- Let’s you see what sites come up when you search on specific keywords–a great opportunity to uncover competitors and see how they rank.
Features
- Offers real time, highly customizable web stats organized by visitors, locale, content, links, searches, campaigns & goals.
- Tracks every visitor who comes to your web site with amazing detail, and shows all their history with one click.
- Offers on-the-go access to your data with an iPhone interface & generic mobile interface.
- Highly detailed, real time campaign & goal tracking.
- Offers five different plans, starting at FREE to $299.99/year.
Benefits
- Gives the most in-depth look at your visitors and what they’re viewing, clicking & downloading on your site.
- Extremely detailed traffic sourcing–tells you how your visitors got to your site, directly or by bookmark, links, searches, advertisements, webmail, RSS reader or social media.
- Affordable plans for every need.
- The real-time stats are perfect for the ultra-inquisitive person who doesn’t want to wait 24 hours for stats to update.
I enjoy using Google Analytics, Alexa and Clicky for very different reasons. For me, Google Analytics gives me the best numbers, Alexa gives me the best competitive insight and Clicky gives me the best way to really get to know my readers and find out what’s valuable & interesting to them.
What web stats programs do you think are wicked good?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for sharing these tools…I’ve been looking for a tool to track links that people click on while on my site.
And, oooh oooh oooh, I nominated you…check it out! You’ll accept right?
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Thanks for sharing this info. Didn’t know about Clicky, and I just signed up with them. I’m a stats junkie, myself! Virgo’s LIVE off of that stuff!
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Heather Allard Reply:
April 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I will warn you–Clicky can become quite an addiction!! Hee.
Enjoy!
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VERY good summary of the benefits of each! I’d like to note that Alexa has sort of fallen by the wayside in terms of trust in its numbers and stats, but you didn’t do a “cons” for these analytics sites.
I’d also like to add Compete into the mix. It has a LOT of problems, in that it can cut off our monthly PVs quite a bit (at the free level, it only counts USA hits). However, assuming that it cuts off every site’s proportionally (it reflects only half the Traveling Mamas’ monthly PV rate), then Compete is a great source for seeing how one site compares to another in terms of audience size.
Terrific, professional post!
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Heather Allard Reply:
April 13th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Thanks for sharing–I’ll definitely check it out. I hadn’t heard of that one. There are MANY other web stats programs (Site Meter, Feedjit, Aw Stats, Webalizer, etc) but for me, GA, Alexa & Clicky really work.
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I am not sure whether you have heard of this upcoming Analytics program, Woopra. It is still in beta but it is easily one with tons of potential. Just like Clicky, it gives you real time analytics. For my blog, I am using GA and it concurrently, so that I don’t miss out on anything.
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Heather Allard Reply:
April 13th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Thanks, Darran! I’ll check it out–like you, I like to keep my bases covered and not miss anything!
Heather
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I became aware of your blog through Mybusinessadventures.com. I love it. I currently have Analytics and sitemeter. Analytics is great but I have no idea how to interpret sitemeter.
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Thanks, Felicia! Welcome to The Mogul Mom!!
I find Site Meter a bit difficult too.
Heather
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Heather…Great post! You did your research! I use GA and sitemeter, mainly b/c they’re free! LOVE love love GA, my only issue with it is it’s not real time. But, I use Site Meter for real time stuff, so it all works out OK
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