5 web analytic software that can help improve your business
Gathering and processing information is a crucial success factor when you’re running a business. Data and statistics help you understand how you’re performing at the moment, whether you’ve improved in comparison to past weeks and months, and where you’re headed. Using timely information can help you reach new heights in your business success.
Without the proper information to go with your business, bankruptcy and utter defeat can catch you unawares.
Data becomes even more important when you’re running an online business. You need to track your website’s performance both from a technical and user experience point-of-view. And you must be able to analyze the behaviors of your visitors and potential customers in order to funnel them into the right direction.
This goal is achieved through the use of analytics software, a set of tools that help collect, analyze and report on website traffic. Basically, they help you answer many questions about your site:
• Who’s visiting your site?
• How did they find it?
• What do they do once they land on your site?
• Do they visit your site again, and if so, how often?
• What do they need? Do you offer it? How can you help them better find it?
• And a thousand other questions that are crucial in defining the roadmap of your business.
But a simple search of web analytics tools will show an endless list of names, all of which claim to be the best in the trade. Which one to choose? In this article I will present a few good titles that can get you started on your analytics campaign.
This is one of the most famous and widely used analytics tools. Much of its fame it owes to the big name that supports it, but aside from that, it’s a pretty decent tool, it gives you relevant information, and it’s free.
Google Analytics was originally designed as a tool for AdWords users, and was later refurbished with additional features to make it a fully-fledged web analytics tool. It provides you with detailed reports on performance and activities that take place on your site’s pages, and it also has good features that allow you to conduct A/B testing on your site’s content.
Google also offers a paid premium program that offers unlimited access to data and strong customer support. But it comes at a $150 thousand per year price tag.
This tool is created by graphics software giant Adobe, better known for its Creative Suite. The DMS provides the basic meat-and-potatoes you find in all analytics software with the aim to get all your data in one place, including web analytics, social analytics, and search and paid traffic. It also offers lots of advanced features that make it one of the strongest and most professional analytics tools.
One of its strengths is its ability to create segments, which allows you to perform precise scrutiny of different subsets of your visitors and examine their behavior and preferences. It also has cool features that allow for A/B testing, which allows you to study user behavior to different versions of your site pages.
But as is the case with all Adobe products, all these goodies do not come cheap though, and you’ll have to dig deep into your pocket for a $5,000 monthly fee if you want to benefit from its services.
This is a good self-hosted analytics tool that offers decent feedback for a low price. Have a Mint gives you real-time statistics and helps you track visitors after they come to your site, including:
• Where they found your site
• What pages are they visiting
• How much time do they spend on pages
Have a Mint will charge you a one-time $30 fee, which is very reasonable in comparison to the Adobe solution, and will provide you with unlimited site tracking and a host of plugins that will enable you to enhance and customize your analytics experience.
This is a solution that offers a different, person-centric approach to analytics, which means it focuses on per-visitor data instead of broad stats. It easily integrates with CRM, email marketing and other programs and allows you to analyze data from multiple channels in a single interface. It also offers a timeline view of visitor activity in visual format. Provides a free trial for 30 days.
You can start with KISSmetrics for a free 30-day trial period, but you will eventually have to opt for one of the paid programs, ranging from $49 to $499, depending on the features you select.
Whatagraph is a web application that takes Google Analytics to the next step. It integrates with your Google Analytics account, which makes it a perfect choice if you’re deciding to port, because you don’t need to start from scratch and can make use of all the data you’ve gathered so far. As soon as you sign up, it taps into your previous Google Analytics data to get you up to date.
Whatagraph adds features that improve your analytics experience and make your job easier. Its greatest feature is the countless ready-to-print graphical reports and infographics it generates based on the data it gathers from your website, which are very suitable for corporate business meetings.
Whatagraph offers an unlimited free starter kit which gives you four weekly reports and one monthly report and some basic insights. For a $12 monthly fee you’ll get unlimited reports, unlimited stats and advanced insight info.
Author: Ben Dickson, Software engineer and CTO at Comelite IT Solutions.Contributor to TechCrunch, AppsZoom and CanadaFreePress.
Published by: Blog Whatagraph.com