4 Ways to Track Website Stats

For all website owners, tracking stats is key, especially if you want to make a little money with your site.  This post will look into ways site owners can track visitors, clicks, and other vital information on their own sites in order to best plan their money making methods.

There’s nothing wrong with financially gaining for your efforts, but never forget content is king, and for content to be king, you must first develop trust with your readers and then monitor what they read, what they like, and where they visit.

Tracking Stats is Fundamental

There are numerous ways, software packages, freeware, and site specific methods, and my hope is that after this series is done, you’ve got all the tools at your disposal and can make a more apt decision balancing your needs and your site’s target market.

What I’d like to target first are the analytical software packages that exist to assist those that are really looking at going in-depth with their analytics monitoring. I will delve into a few of my favorites, and then, list other options that are available for you. Providing you this information will be key when making any decision, and empowering is what I want to make sure I do for each and every reader, especially on a topic as fundamental as this.

The Tools

I. Google Analytics

By now everyone on the planet has heard of Google. With as many online tools as they offer, it’s no surprise that they also offer site tracking utilities that work very well with their other offerings such as AdWords. The utility allows for tracking of extensive information that would be vital to establishing which pages to market on, how, why, and where your traffic is coming in from.

I personally use this tool for all of my sites, and more importantly, have the stats printed out weekly in order to review how traffic is using my site, and viewing my content. The real big downside to this option is that it’s not live data. The data you review can be as old as 24 hours, so this would not be sufficient if you are seeking live, updated information.

II. Clicky

This utility shows you what every person that has come to your site has done, and how they’ve interacted on your page. This might be a little more information than perhaps you are looking for, but for those that stake their livelihood on their site, it might be an option worth looking at.

Clicky does offer a tiered service that starts off with a free account. The free account has its limitations, but starting out, you get a free 21-day trail of the Pro Account to show you what you can get if you pay for the tierd services. Prices range from $29.99 to $149.99 yearly, but undoubtedly, Clicky is one of the leaders in their field for what they do. They even go with a comparison chart of their services versus their competition.

III. Yahoo Web Analytics

Here’s another familiar face in the bunch, Yahoo. With its version of web analytics, the dashboard is customizable and very easy to manage, along with live and up to date information.

It proposes that the use of their software makes it easy for marketers to align their campaigns with the user’s search and reading habits. The strong points seem to be the demographic and behavioral reports that can be monitored with Yahoo. Definitely worth a look!

IV. Woopra

Woopra is a real winner with a lot of people, and honestly, it’s slowly starting to become my favorite of all the packages offered in this list. For starters, the interface is, simply put, just beautiful. It’s comforting to browse the interface and the many segments of information it can track for you.

Like other packages, it offers real time tracking, and it also offers you the ability to see visitor information, track their clicks, and monitor their movements across your site. What l love most about Woopra is the extras it has added into the package to truly make your tracking interactive.

For starters, it offers click to chat sessions so that you can chat with visitors on your site as they arrive. It’s a two way communication and the webmaster can decide how they want to set it up. It can either be click-able by the visitor to initiate chat, or initiated by the webmaster to connect with the visitor. Secondly, it also allows you to track loyal visitors to your site by specifically targeting them for tracking, monitoring how often and what they comment on and what they click.  All of this offers a better view of your most loyal fans and what works and what does not.

Conclusion

These are just four of top analytical tools in my book. There are many other analytical software packages you can use for your site. Pick the ones that work best for you.