I have seen many posts in various forums regarding where to get Web site statistics. There are many statistics package that can be purchased and installed on a Web server, but many Web site authors are on a host that they don’t own.
The two most common online statistics packages available are Google Analytics and StatCounter. I have used both in the past and will be reviewing them in this post.
Google Analytics
Many people recommend this as their choice for keeping track of their Web site statistics. It provides a very detailed look at the visitors to your site, and is completely free to use.
The statistics are organized into different sections: Dashboard, Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content and Goals. With the exception of Dashboard, the remaining sections all have subsections that provide more detailed information.
The first view that is shown when accessing Google Analytics is that of the Dashboard. This page provides an overview of your Web site statistics over the past month. Items such as traffic, visitors, popular content and traffic sources are summarized on this page.
The next sections are summarized as follows:
- Visitors – This section provides an abundance of information about the visitors to your Web site. Information such as the number of new and returning visitors, maps, browser capabilities and network information can be found here. This information can be useful because it gives you an idea of the tools and connection speeds that your users are using when accessing your Web site.
- Traffic Sources – How are your visitors getting to your Web site? That question is answered in this section. Such things as referring Web sites, search engines and keywords searched by your visitors are shown here. This information can be helpful to optimize your site by review the keywords entered. Many bloggers create posts based on what keywords visitors used to get to their Web site.
- Content – If you would like to know the pages on your Web site that are the most popular, then you should have a look in this section. This section contains information on the pages that visitors first see when they visit your Web site, as well as the pages they leave your Web site from.
- Goals – If you have a business Web site then you can set metrics to measure how much your site fulfills its business objective. Goals measure the conversion rate of your Web site, such as when a client completes a purchase of a product from your Web site. Many Web site authors may not use this section.
I find Google Analytics provides very detailed information regarding visitors to my Web site. I do, however, have trouble tracking how a visitor moves through my site. There may be a way of doing this, but I don’t it very easy to do. Google Analytics also takes some time to update its statistics. From my experience, it can be several hours before you see the data.
Overall, I use Google analytics because of the information that it provides, especially for past data as it seems to keep a lot of historical data.
StatCounter
Along with Google Analytics, the other big player in the free Web site statistics package is StatCounter. I have only recently used their service, and found that they offer a really nice, detailed statistical information.
StatCounter doesn’t have as many different reports as Google Analytics does, but it does have very detailed reports. They do provide the same information as Google Analytics, such as entry and exit pages, keyword analysis, and visitor system information.
The one thing that I like about StatCounter is the ability to easily see how a visitor navigated through your site by viewing a Visitor Paths report.
I have a lot more experience with using Google Analytics, than with StatCounter (actually I just signed up StatCounter about a month ago), but I find myself using StatCounter just a much because the reports are easier to understand. They provide charts with several reports including the data in a tabular form below the chart.
The one thing about StatCounter that you should know is that it will only keep track of the last 500 page loads for the free account. You will need to upgrade to a paid account if you would like to track more. Once the log is full, the next page load will be recorded and the oldest data will be deleted. For many people, such as myself, 500 may be a large enough value. I believe the log file contains information about the visitors, as I have been able to pull up my site stats for a month ago.
Summary
Both statistics packages mentioned in this post are great for providing information about the visitors to your Web site. Each package has a different look and feel, but both provide a lot of information that could help you manage your Web site. I currently use both packages as each one provides information that the other does not. If you would like to choose one, then I suggest you try both and see which one you like best.