I’ve touted Google Analytics on this site before and it seems the free tool just keeps getting better. If you’re fully dependent on eCommerce and your analytics are helping you run your business, you’re probably looking at more sophisticated tools, but for many small businesses Google Analytics provides plenty of useful data and reports.
They recently upgraded their interface and have released a couple of feature enhancements based on user response. From the first batch of upgrades I’m a huge fan of the Clickable URLs. It seems Danny Sullivan was a voice in favor of this and I couldn’t agree more. How nice is it to be able to click a link, launch a site and check out a referring source?
The second batch of enhancements included content reports that now have a Segment menu so you can cross-segment pages and sets of pages by referral source, keyword, visitor type, and other visitor segments. I have alot of pages that are unique to certain keywords or types of visitors so this really helps me organize and manage data for specific parts of my website.
Hats off to the Analytics team for listening to users and reacting quickly with upgrades!
We use Omniture SiteCatalyst at my office, and I like it. Though, I sometimes wonder if we couldn’t get the same reports using Google Analytics.
I really do need to setup up Google Analytics up on my personal sites, though. Especially my new blog, since I’m hoping to make a bit of extra pocket money from ads after I’ve picked up a decent number of readers.
I’ve not used Google Analytics as well as I should - and I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on HOW to use this tool.
Adam,
Omniture is a great tool. I don’t have alot of experience with it, but I’m sure you’re getting very valuable data.
Ivana,
Thanks for stopping by! Google Analytics has a ton of great reporting that probably doesn’t get used that often. Good thought - I’ll think about doing a more comprehensive post.
In the meantime, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Pat
Patrick,
You’re right. Omniture is a great tool. It does provide a lot of valuable data. Although, I think I’m going to have to call their tech support people, because it doesn’t seem to want to let me run a simple traffic referrers report today.