Do you want to find out the most useful Google analytics tools that every website owner needs? It’s a little confusing trying to figure out which is most essential tool for your marketing efforts. The truth is that there are many great web analytics tools out there, but I’ve managed to narrow it down to my top favorites.
There are probably more analytics tools than we can count and maybe even more than we need. But the right free Google Analytics tool, when used effectively, can help us gain valuable insights into what’s happening on our websites.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the go-to platform for many marketers, in large part because it’s totally free, chock-full of features, and comes with the clout of the Google brand name.
After you enter the Google Analytics code into your website’s HTML, the service will measure certain goals for you, including which pages a visitor clicks on, how long they stay, and the actions they take. For example, the tool can tell you whether a visitor is sharing the content on social media or clicking on an ad. Each time a goal is completed, Google logs the conversion in your analytics report.
As Kissmetrics points out, one of Google Analytics’ best features—especially for retail sites and marketers tracking purchases—is the Goal Funnel, with which you can set up a string of URLs that a consumer clicks through when purchasing an item. You can find out not only how many people are going through the process of making a purchase, but also how many are abandoning it at a certain stage. This information will allow marketers to adjust their strategies and make the purchasing experience easier for the consumer.
Google will also report the keywords people search that bring them to your site, as well as which browsers and devices they are using—not to mention from where they are being referred. I often monitor the behavior on our site in order to see which pieces are driving the most traffic and where that traffic is coming from.
When it comes to customizing data, you can track certain campaigns that are driving traffic to your site, create your own reports with hand-picked metrics, and set up custom alerts to have your insights delivered at specific times.
Perhaps the most common complaint about using Google Analytics is the information can be cluttered and the interface difficult to navigate. However, Google is working to counter these complaints with new tools like Data Studio, which lets users turn data into shareable, visually engaging reports. While the platform still may not be the most intuitive, you should be more comfortable with the settings after about a month, and, in turn, get the most out of Google’s free service.
Bitly
Bitly may be best known as a free link shortener, but its features do more than just save space. Once you’ve shortened links—and possibly even added a vanity URL shortener—Bitly gives you the tools to efficiently share those links and analyze their performances.
For example, Bitly reports how many clicks each link generated and when people clicked, down to the hour. The report will also include which platforms people used to share the link so you know if most of your traffic is coming from Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on. Below is an example of Bitly’s map of your link’s geographic distribution of clicks, which is helpful for optimizing and targeting future content.
On the stats page, Bitly gathers results from all of your links so you can assess how your collection of content has performed in the past hour, day, week, and month.
Bitly may not provide as much detailed information as Google Analytics, but if you’re already taking advantage of its free link shortener and clean interface, you might as well use the perks that come with the package.
Oribi
Oribi is a Marketing Analytics tool that empowers businesses of all sizes to make smarter, data-driven decisions. It helps you to define your conversion goals without any code.
Features:
- You will get actionable insights to drive results
- Understand trends and be ahead of changes
- Connect email addresses to match journeys to your top prospects
- It helps you uncover all touchpoints involved in a conversion
- You can track and compare multiple campaigns by their UTM
- It helps you to define your conversion goals without any code
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a service that enables you to track user interaction with mobile and web applications. It is one of the best website analytics tools which offers reports that help you to monitor KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and user behavior.
Features:
- You can quickly divide your data into a segment for better visualization.
- It allows you to zoom in user profiles to know who they are.
- You can compare different groups of users.
- Mixpanel helps you to visualize how users explore websites and products.
- This app enables you to monitor and improve website conversation rates.
- It provides easy to build a Dashboard.
Adobe Analytics
What it is: traffic analytics and multichannel data collection tool from Adobe
What it’s used for: an enterprise alternative to Google Analytics
Price: on request
4% of experts surveyed use Adobe Analytics. As an enterprise alternative to Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics is a specialist analytics tool, offering multichannel data collection spanning web, voice, OTT (over-the-top), and IoT (Internet of Things). The focus is on machine learning and predictive algorithms for advanced insights.
Google Webmaster Tools
This is a great tool for maximizing your site’s visibility on the search engines. See how Google crawls and indexes your site. Identify specific problems the spiders are having accessing your site. Find out which Google search queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there. Tell Google about your pages with Sitemaps: which pages are the most important to you and how often they change. You can also specify you would like the URLs Google indexes to appear. You can connect your Webmaster Tools account directly to your Google Analytics account.
Piwik
Piwik’s free software comes with a caveat: You’re required to download the program and host it on your own server. Piwik offers similar features to other popular analytics programs, including event tracking, visitor maps, and keyword search, but what sets it apart from its competitors is its mobile app and unlimited data storage.
The Piwik dashboard is rather involved, which can be either a pro or con depending on how much time you want to put in. The setup also requires some patience and the ability to install the necessary tags on your website. Once you get comfortable with Piwik, however, you can customize it to your liking, since the dashboard is full of widgets that can be arranged for most analytical needs.
The most distinct features include “row evolution,” which allows you to hover your mouse over any link or event, click on the graph icon, and view a detailed history of that data point. Additionally, you can sort rows and compare them to see how each performed on different platforms, such as browsers and mobile devices.
Piwik also offers the ability to set up automatic email reports so you can stay updated on your content’s performance and optimize accordingly.
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is an online analytics application that offers numerous features to track user behavior. It is one of the best analytics tools which enables you to understand customer interests and boost profile from your site.
Features:
- You can see how people are interacting with your product pages.
- Crazy Egg enables you to know new users, a user using a mobile app, or an active user.
- You can track what people are doing with forms and login screens.
Statcounter
What it is: web traffic analytics
What it’s used for: tracking website traffic, sessions, pageviews, and real-time visitors
Price: from free for 500 pageviews
2% of analytics professionals in our survey use Statcounter. Data-points on the latest 500 pageviews are available for free, or users can upgrade to a premium account for more features, including landing page analysis and paid traffic tracking.
Conclusion:
Google Analytics is an online reporting tool that gives you insights into visitor data. With these data, website owners can then make informed decisions to increase sales, boost subscriber rates and ultimately improve their business. But not all analytics tools are created equal, so below you’ll find a list of the best Google Analytics tools.