Google Analytics is the most used web analytics software for a reason. It’s easy to use, reliable and packed with features. Whether you are looking for on-page data or trying to learn about the mobile app on your mobile device it’s feature-set can fit any need. It’s free, but if you want more features you can pay for the premium version.
Google Analytics is a powerful, FREE tool that will help you analyze your website traffic. If you’re just starting out with analytics, you’re probably struggling to find the best google web analytics tools. We felt your pain and decided to create this list of the top tools that will help boost your understanding of your website stats.
Google Analytics
7,251of the 10,000 most popular websites use Google Analytics59,206of the 100,000 most popular websites use Google Analytics420,066of the 1 million most popular websites use Google Analytics1,409,266of the 5 million most popular websites use Google AnalyticsJan 19Apr 19Jul 19Oct 19Jan 20Apr 20Jul 20Oct 20Jan 210500,0001,000,000Domains
The undisputed number one in analytic solutions is Google Analytics. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise: After all, who can better help to optimize your website than the company many look to as the bar when it comes to measuring digital popularity and the like?
Google Analytics is free and easy to configure. Most people already have the Google account needed to get the tool, and if not, setting one up takes little more than a few clicks. After that, you’ll only have to insert a few lines of code into your website, and that’s it. Dedicated plug-ins are offered for most content management systems (CMSs), like WordPress.
Google Tag Assistant
Tag Assistant is a Chrome extension that can be used to create, validate, diagnose, and troubleshoot your Analytics data on each of your pages. Once you create a recording and detect a problem, you can check again to verify whether your tags are firing correctly following a fix. I usually debug specific issues with Tag Assistant, but don’t use this plugin for a broad code scan on my website.
GA Debugger
The Google Analytics Debugger Chrome extension can enable the debug version of analytics.js without requiring you to change your tracking code. This allows you to debug your own sites and see how other sites have implemented Google Analytics tracking with analytics.js.
Step 1: Turn the GA Debugger ON after you have added it to Chrome.
Step 2: Press Ctrl+Shift+I to open the console and start debugging.
You can quickly find out which data is sent to Google Analytics. And debug any issues in your Google Analytics implementation.
WASP
WASP can be added to Chrome as well and is embedded in the “Developer Console”.
This application can be very useful in exploring and debugging GA tracking issues. But also allows you to debug a ton of other tracking scripts.
Visually it looks stunning. Use it a couple of times to get acquittanced with it.
Tag Manager Injector
Google Tag Manager can make your Analytics life a lot easier. But what if you want to implement GTM even before you have site access? Or maybe you want to enhance your GTM skills without having a website yourself?
This is when the Google Tag Manager Injector deserves a place in your Chrome extensions toolbox!Last year I published an in-depth guide on how to to use the Google Tag Manager Injector. Make sure to read it!
Here are five use cases to make this Chrome extension incredibly useful:
- Prepare implementations/configurations in advance.
- Enhance your learning of GTM without having an actual website.
- Use the extension in your GTM training sessions.
- Convince a potential client of your skills with real-live data/actions.
- Refrain from screwing up your real account with tons of mistakes first.
UXtweak
UXtweak is an ultimate website analytics tool when it comes to seeing your website from users’ points of view. It allows you to capture every interaction of your visitors, such as mouse movement, scrolls, taps, and clicks, and replay their entire activity with the pixel-perfect session playback.
UXtweak perfectly visualizes your customers’ frustration in order to better understand their issues.
Key Features:
- Session Replay – see how exactly users interact with your site
- Heatmaps – find out where users click, how far they scroll & where they move the cursor
- SmartSearch Filters – filter out users upon any event
- Activity Tracking
And not only that, UXtweak offers a variety of other UX research & behavior analytic tools, such as Website Testing, Five Second Test, First Click Test, and many others!
Pricing:
- Starter: Free, no credit card required
- Professional: $70/month
- Enterprise: custom
Pros:
- Easy implementation with GTM, GDPR, and CCPA compliant
- 155M+ user panel and Recruiting Widget
- One plan gives you access to all the testing tools
- Technical targeting
- Advanced analytics, filters and PDF reports
Cons:
- Only 10 languages supported
Pro tip:
To get even more valuable insights, try using Session Recording in combination with Website testing. This approach gives you an opportunity to uncover all the possible usability issues of your website.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog can be very powerful for many reasons. For SEO and Analytics purposes this tool is on my list.
Their free version is limited to crawl 500 pages, so if you have the budget: go for the paid one. At the time of writing this tool costs £149.00 per year.
One very useful way to leverage this application is to scan your pages for the presence of the GA and/or GTM code.
Follow these steps after you’ve downloaded your (free) copy:
Step 1: Go to Configuration > Custom > Search.
Step 2: Fill in your unique GA or GTM id.
Step 3: Start spidering your domain.
Step 4: Switch to “Does not Contain” filter when the Spider is ready.
Make sure to take appropriate steps (add GA or GTM tracking to your pages) if you find some pages in this list.
Ghostery
Ghostery is another useful Chrome Add-on.
It detects and blocks tracking technologies to speed up page loads, eliminate clutter, and protects your data.
I find it very useful when I am on a dynamic IP and don’t want my data to be sent to Google Analytics.
Then I simply switch the GA tracking off.
Bare in mind that most analysts would not like you to use this option too often. 😉
RegExr
One of my very popular posts is the one about Regular Expressions in Google Analytics.
You can use them in several ways:
1. Applying Report Filters
2. Setting Up Admin Filters
3. Setting Up Goals
4. Defining Funnel steps
5. Setting Up Segments
At certain times you might want to experiment with your RegEx and find that it doesn’t work the way it should.
RegExr is a fantastic resource (not a plugin) that helps you to learn, build and test advanced regular expressions for your website.
Reporting
Many of us spend too much time on simply exploring – and getting lost in our data – instead of producing relevant insights for our organization or clients. There are many useful Google Analytics tools and Add-ons available that can speed up your reporting time.
Conclusion:
Google Analytics is a free, fast and reliable tool for tracking visitors to your website. In fact, Google Analytics is so popular that it has been used on more than 3 million websites, including 100% of the top 10,000 sites on the web. Find out how Google’s free analytics tool can grow your business and boost your revenue and profits with these hand-picked Google Web Analytics tools below: