Though I love the simplicity of StatCounter for most of my sites I do use Google Analytics for a few of my projects. I thought it would be worth noting that Google has announced some major updates to its analytics tools this week. Google claims the updates will provide the user with more detailed and useful information and provide more sophisticated analysis to advanced users.
Some new features:
- Customized dashboards
- Custom email reports
- Better visualization of graphical data
- Improved Ad Sense reporting
I’m not sure how new this is, but there’s a nice video on the analytics site highlighting the key features of Google Analytics. To my rusty old brain, it does appear to be reflective of the new version.
It appears that for new subscribers the new features are available immediately. For existing users the new version will be transitioned over the next couple of weeks. Always interesting to see what new ingredients Google adds to the pot.
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I am a big proponent of knowing information about who is visiting my web sites. One of my favorite web stat tools is a free tool called StatCounter. It allows me to quickly see who is coming to my site (well, their ISP anyway), their geographical location, what page link they clicked on to get there, what search words they used, which pages they viewed… and more.
It works fairly simply. I register, fill out my web site information, and tell the system what kind of stat counter I want (I always go with the invisible kind… I think it junks up a page if there is a visible web counter) and then it gives me a little snippet of Java Script that I simply paste into my web page code.
Stats are a great way to get details about who, what, when, where and why people are coming to your site and every web site should have some sort of statistics. If your ISP doesn’t provide one for free (many do) then I highly recommend using an outside service like StatCounter.
I also recommend the following other stat tools:
Google Analytics - the 800 lb gorilla does a fine job of stat tracking for free (Formerly Urchin Stats)
CrazyEgg - This service (there is a free version) lets you test web layouts and new features by actually producing visual heat maps of where people are clicking on your pages. I don’t recommend using this for regular stats, but it’s a great tool to test new features!
**** One bonus of StatCounter is that some kind soul created a StatCounter Mac Widget for my desktop (sorry Windows folks, I don’t see one for you). It lets me see at-a-glance some quick tracking statistics. I love it and find myself addicted to keeping my eyes on it.
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