Any business, big or small, needs a variety of tools to monitor, manage and measure the performance of its website, and get a better understanding of their customers. We’ve outlined below a selection web analytics tools which can be used to help you gather and analyse that important data.
Google Analytics (google.com/analytics) – Free
A completely free service that generates detailed statistics about visitors to your website, Google Analytics is the simplest and most robust web analytics offering. Currently used by more than half of the top 10,000 websites in the world, according to the site’s usage statistics, you can find out where your visitors are coming from, what they’re doing while on your site and how often they come back, among many other things. As you get more involved in the site’s analytics, you can receive more detailed reports, but it’s that ease of use that makes it one of the most popular services.
Yahoo Web Analytics (web.analytics.yahoo.com) – Free
Once you’ve mastered Google Analytics, Yahoo’s similar offering gives you a little more depth in your surveying. It offers better access control options and a simpler approach to multi-site analytics, raw and real time data collection (unlike Google, you can import cost of goods data), visitor behavior and demographics reports and customized options as well.
Crazy Egg (crazyegg.com) – $9-$99/month
Crazy Egg allows you to build heat maps and track your visitor clicks based on where they are specifically clicking within your website which helps you to understand your website’s usability. It allows you to see which parts of your site users are finding most interesting and clicking on the most. It can help you to improve your website design and in essence conversion.
Google Website Optimizer (google.com/websiteoptimizer) – Free
Another free tool from Google, the Website Optimizer is a sophisticated testing service that allows you to rotate different segments of content on your website to see which sections and placement convert into the most clicks, and at the end of the day, the most sales. You can choose what parts of your page you want to test, from the headline to images to text, and run experiments to see what users respond best to.
ClickTale (clicktale.com) – prices vary
A qualitative customer analysis, Clicktale records every action of your website’s visitors from their first click to the last. It uses Meta statistics to create visual heat maps and reports on customer behavior, as well as providing traditional conversion analytics.
