Web data analytics software is a great option for self-employed business owners who need to manage their business online. The purpose of this article is to introduce you to some web data analytics software programs you should consider if you are in the market for such a program.
Ever tried to figure out what visitors are doing on your website? You might have installed Google Analytics, or used some other online analytics tools to figure out what people are searching for and how they’re navigating through your website. But, it would be much better if you could see all that in real-time. Plus, is your data really reliable? That’s were the role of web data analytics software comes into the picture. To get insights on your website online, like what visitors are doing right now, you need a real-time solution.
web analytics tools comparison
8. Moz Keyword Explorer
While SEMrush is often cited as a top keyword search tool, there might be a new sheriff in town since SEO software company Moz launched its own tool this May. It’s more comprehensive than most keyword search options out there, and it’s built to take the manual labor out of keyword research. As founder Rand Fishkin writes, the tool “takes you all the way through the keyword research process—from discovering keyword ideas to getting metrics to building a list, filtering the keywords on it, and prioritizing which ones to target based on the numbers that matter.”
Once you search a term, you’ll first see an overview of the analysis. For instance, here’s Fishkin’s example of a search for “Striped Shirts”:
At the top of the page, you’ll see five metrics, which can help you determine how valuable the term might be for your content efforts. You’ll also be able to click on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) analysis, which shows you the actual Google search result for that keyword, including any images or AdWords ads that appear.
If you’re looking to include this keyword in your content, Moz offers suggestions of up to 1,000 related terms, ranked by relevancy and volume. You can filter those suggestions to show keywords from a mix of sources, keywords that only include the terms your search for, or keywords that don’t include the terms you searched for—if you want fresh ideas.
To save your research, simply add your keywords to a list. From there, you’ll be able to compare, sort, and rank them by importance.
While the service is free, there is a usage limit. Anyone can run two keyword searches each day at no charge; community members get an additional five searches. For more comprehensive access to the tool, you can buy the standalone service starting at $600 per year or become a Moz PRO member.
9. Cyfe
Cyfe is an all-in-one dashboard that helps you monitor data across multiple sites and applications, such as Google AdWords, Salesforce, PayPal, MailChimp, and WordPress.
Not only can you see all of this data in one place, but you can also customize your dashboard with over 40 widgets for different sources and platforms. And if you don’t find what you want from Cyfe’s widget pool, you can create your own widgets. All you have to do is upload external data from your source, CSV, or Google Sheet. For example, you might want a donut graph of certain results shown in orange, blue, and green.
Once your dashboard is up, you can create real-time reports to download and share. If that’s not enough, you can even connect Cyfe to your TV and rotate one or more dashboards on the big screen.
10. Google Search Console
Previously called Google Webmaster Tools, Google’s search insights tool was rebranded to be more inclusive of “everyone who cares about Search,” including “hobbyists, small business owners, SEO experts, marketers, programmers, designers, app developers.”
The platform basically helps you make sure your website or Android app is Google-friendly and shows up in relevant search results.
Google Search Console helps website owners optimize their pages by providing three important resources:
- Search analytics reports, which show how often your site appears in Google search results, how many clicks and impressions came from those results, and which queries prompted those results. You can also compare data to see how your search results fare between mobile and desktop users, U.S. and UK visitors, etc.
- Alerts for errors or issues. If you run a URL that Google can’t crawl or that returns an HTTP error code, Google will send a notification so you can address the problem.
- Tests to see if Google can “understand” your content. Through a program called Fetch as Google, you can see whether the Googlebot can access a page on your site. If there are issues, you can even see if resources such as images are being blocked by the bot. This way, you can go back in and debug your site, if need be.
For the most seamless experience with Google data, connect your Google Analytics pages with your Search Console pages so you can access a more comprehensive view of your site’s performance. For instance, as SERPs points out, Google Search Console can track data from web users who have disabled Javascript—something Google Analytics can’t do on its own.
You may decide to use a combination of these platforms for your analytics, or you may be even experiment with free trials and then upgrade your favorite tools. Just remember that whichever analytics platform you choose, you can track vital engagement stats without emptying your wallet.
11. FIRESTATS
For a simple, easy to use web statistics tool that offers convenience in how you track site visitor activities, then you may want to earmark FireStats. When we say straightforward and easy to use, we mean once the installation process is complete. The actual installation is quite tricky, unfortunately, and requires some knowledge of script installation protocols as well as access to your server. And unless you have a dedicated server, or at the very least an unmanaged virtual private server (VPS), your web hosting company isn’t going to allow you to do so.
But if you have coding and script installation experience, and have either a dedicated server or VPS, then FireStats is one of the best alternatives to Google Analytics. In fact, if you have multiple sites hosted on your server, you only need one FireStats installation to monitor them all. The tool supports a vast array of languages, and you’ll also be able to download raw data logs.
Of course, FireStats works with real time data; otherwise, it wouldn’t be on our list at all. Furthermore, you’ll also get reports on the search engine queries and referral links that led visitors to your site. At the same time, you can also see which of your pages are the most popular. Together with the other data offered by FireStats, you’ll be able to discover why these pages work and others don’t.
If you’re worried about bots and spammers, FireStats filters them out based on IP, user agent, and URL. FireStats is free for non-commercial use, and a commercial license only costs $25.
12. FOXMETRICS
FoxMetrics is a web analytics tool that allows you to customize the metrics according to your business requirements.
There are four main features that FoxMetrics boasts: funnels, profiles, segments, and triggers.
- The funnels allow you to identify where your visitors are dropping an action, for example, an online purchase. This gives you the power to improve the interface so you can maximize your profits as well as return customers.
- FoxMetrics automatically builds user profiles and creates a customer life cycle that tracks each visitor, so you know how often someone views your site content over time. This feature allows you to plan marketing and promotions to target regular users by offering a reward for their loyalty.
- The segmentation feature is found in many of the other web analytics tools we’ve mentioned (and will still be listing). This segregates your website traffic into relevant categories, adding to the information gathered about how users are interacting with your site as well as how they access it.
- Finally, triggers are actions that you can use to base the setup of reactions. For example, if a visitor clicks on a particular section of your site, you can assign an appropriate action, such as a pop-up.
FoxMetrics allows you to access your analytics via your phone. You’ll also be able to track software installations and newsletter views, which most web analytics tools fail to do. And if you have any third-party applications you want to use alongside FoxMetrics, the tool allows for easy integration.
Some of the features are only available on the premium packages, priced at $499 a month.
13. GAUGES
Although JavaScript is starting to be considered somewhat outdated, most of the internet still uses the coding language—including Google itself. This is why the Gauges web analytics tool has been developed using JavaScript. The user interface is easy to navigate, with an intuitive layout and categorization. The dashboard allows you to view all of the analytics data in one go, with a clear statistics overview that isn’t over-complicated.
To this same effect, Gauges also focuses mainly on the very basics of web analytics. The tool competently tracks how much traffic your site is generating, as well as where these views are coming from. This feature allows you to keep track of the way your placement on SERPs is affecting traffic, as well as telling you which referrals (backlinks from other sites) are more successful than other. Furthermore, Gauges will also show you where visitors to your site are navigating afterwards—whether they’re moving on to other pages on your site, following an external link you’ve included in your content, or if they’re heading back to the search engine to try again.
All of this information is important and can help you adjust your marketing and content strategies as well as better plan for future posts. The actionable data is made readily available in real time.
Gauges offer a free trial period, after which you can opt for one of the three great packages ranging from $6 to $48 per month.
14. GOINGUP
If you’re looking for a web analytics tool that includes some basic SEO tools for your site, then look no further than GoingUp. While it doesn’t have all the features you might need for a truly extensive analysis, and the inbound marketing features aren’t as robust as other tools, GoingUp remains a very viable option for anyone looking to supplement another web analytics tool. It allows its users to track your visitors and sales, as well as your conversion rates. At the same time, the tool will also offer search strategies for you to implement. You can set up Actions and Goals for GoingUp to monitor.
All your traffic trends will be thoroughly analyzed, and the output report includes a heatmap so you can better understand how users are interacting with elements on your pages. Analysis of incoming traffic from SERPs includes the keywords used to generate that SERP, giving you a better understanding of which keywords work best.
To further aid in the above, GoingUp’s SEO tools include keyword position tracking and density. To improve your heat map results, there’s also a page optimization tool. It also helps you to keep track of and improve your Google PageRank and Alexa Rank. Integration with so many SEO features is what puts GoingUp ahead of the game when compared to other web analytics tools.
The best news of all? It’s free to use. Just sign up via email, confirm your email address, and set up your GoingUp account. There’s no limitation on how many websites you can add, which means you can also track your competitors at no extra cost.
15. GOSQUARED
Starting at $29 a month and ranging up to $249 depending on the number of data points, GoSquared promises to answer all your web analytics needs. By use of their Pinging tool, GoSquared tells you how long a visitor has been active on your site. When the visitor first accesses your content, a signal is sent to GoSquared and is repeated at intervals until they leave. This allows the tool to measure their time spent on your site more efficiently than what Google Analytics does.
The user-friendly interface is also highly customizable so that you can set GoSquared up the way you need it. Data is based on individual visitors, and as a collective, so you don’t have to worry that it’s using sample data the way Google Analytics does. The real-time analytics reporting also includes notifications and alerts for traffic spikes and social media trends, among others. One of the biggest ways GoSquared makes itself stand out from the other web analytics tool we’ve mentioned is a feature missing from all of them—live chat.
This integrated feature creates a widget on your site that visitors can use to open a live chat portal. You can use it to offer live support for your ecommerce shop, your online features, or to help new visitors navigate your site. It goes a long way to building long-lasting relationships with your clients, as it improves usability and the likelihood of a return visit.
We recommend using GoSquared alongside Google Analytics for one reason: once your data points are used up, you won’t be able to access your data until the following month. Google Analytics can help you gauge how many data points you’ll need so that you can adjust your account accordingly.
16. GRAPE WEB STATISTICS
If you’ve got some programming experience, Grape Web Statistics is an open source analytics tool that was designed primarily for web developers. The simple interface takes into consideration how overwhelming Google Analytics can be and offers the basic statistics with a high level of accuracy. This does mean Grape Web Statistics misses some of the more advanced features found in the other tools we’ve mentioned.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t use them. If you have experience with developing in PHP or are at least adept with HTML, you can customize Grape Web Statistics to make the software meet all your needs. And therein lies the tool’s charm. If you’re happy with the basics, you won’t get distracted by the more advanced options. On the other hand, if you want some of the advanced features but not certain others, you can add those you need. Because Grape Web Statistics is open source rather than merely another free-to-use tool, you can use it as a foundation on which to build the web analytics tool you want and need. The essential features that are already present include tracking unique and total visits.
Theoretically, Grape Web Statistics works on any operating system (OS) but has only been officially tested on Windows and Linux. It does require that JavaScript is enabled on your OS and that you use PHP 4.3 or higher (anything below 5.6 is obsolete in any case) and MySQL 4 or greater. The main reason cited for JavaScript being a requirement is to prevent bots from wreaking havoc with Grape Web Statistics’ analysis.
17. HEAP ANALYTICS
Heap Analytics is a tool with a focus on user friendliness. You’ll be able to set it up with ease, allowing you to track important activity on your site without requiring any technical experience. Other than installing the tracking code onto your site, Heap works entirely on a point-and-click interface rather than using menus and settings tabs. If you want to create custom events, you can just click directly on the buttons and forms on your site and tell Heap what it is you want the tool to track for those elements.
Heap also automatically tracks monitors activity on your website (or websites if you have more than one!), analyzing it and generating a list of the most frequent events. This flexibility allows you to label and classify the activity as you wish. Heap will even do so retroactively—so if you decide to start tracking a new event, the tool will also give you statistics for that type of activity dating back to the moment the tracking code was installed.
The web analytics tool is remarkably easy to setup and use, no matter your level of expertise. It’s the exact opposite of Google Analytics regarding usability, cutting out the overwhelming stream of endless statistics and multiple screens. Heap has been designed in such a way as to actively encourage you to set up tracking and reports that will be genuinely useful based on your requirements. The Basic package is free to use and is an excellent way to start off if your site is still small and you want to test to the tool. For larger sites (or when your small site grows), you can upgrade to the Premium package. Pricing is customized according to your specific needs. The Premium package also comes with a 14-day free trial.
18. HISTATS
Another fantastic web analytics tool that rivals Google Analytics is Histats. The tool can give you statistics on what pages are being visited, as well as the referral process that led them there—whether they found your site on a SERP or followed a backlink. All statistics are offered in real time, of course.
Histats uses an Invisible/Visible GIF/Flash based counter to gather metrics for up to 10 million hits a day. You won’t be limited to using the tool on only one website either—you have the freedom to manage as many as three hundred, allowing you to keep track of how your competitors are performing too. Histats also provides logs, which webmasters and site owners can use in comparing campaign statistics.
Unlike most other free (and even some of the premium) web analytics tools on the market, Histats allows you to retain your amalgamated data for an unlimited period. Most tools have a limit set, usually for a year or two at best. With Histats, your analytics information can still be accessed 10+ years later.
Because Histats provides real time statistics, the tool promises to be fast and is built on a reliable network. The developers guarantee 99.99% uptimes, and more than 1,500,000,000 hits are tracked on a monthly basis for free. The analytics offered include a breakdown of recent visitors, your most active visitors, popular pages, referrers, and geolocations.
Histats also includes the browser your visitors are using to view your site, as well as what toolbars and hardware are being used. If your site is multilingual, Histats will even segregate the statistics according to the language of your visitors.
19. HUBSPOT
For an online marketing analysis service with a focus on your social media and other marketing platforms, Hubspot is one of the best. The web analytics tool relates your marketing to leads, Return on Investment (ROI), and search queries. This means that when you analyze your site using Hubspot, you’re getting a full breakdown of the site’s performance on every level.
Hubspot allows you to use a drag and drop method for polishing your website pages and email templates, and all the templates provided are immediately responsive. With a well-planned nod toward SEO tool integration, the analytics platform also allows you to monitor and adjust your optimization and sharing in real time, helping you get your content exposed to the right people at the right time. You’ll also be able to push your key landing pages by integrating the design of calls-to-action that bring your site visitors’ attention to these sections.
The design integration capabilities of Hubspot also allow you to polish your landing pages to maximize your traffic to sales conversion. You can also set up “drip” campaigns that help you turn leads into customers with smart email marketing. Hubspot doesn’t offer these at the expense of traditional analytics though. You’ll still receive data on how every visitor to your site interacts with your content, regardless of whether they’re browsing your e-commerce platform or reading through the blog section. All this information is, of course, applicable for integration into your marketing schemes.
You can start off with their free package, but as your business grows you’ll certainly want to upgrade to the premium package starting at $200 per month.
20. IBM UNICA NETINSIGHT
Early we mentioned CoreMetrics and how the tool became known as IBM Digital Analytics after IBM bought the company. Now, we want to introduce you to IBM Unica NetInsight. Unica NetInsight is IBM’s primary web analytics tool and is geared toward enabling users to collect every piece of data necessary for a full understanding of their website traffic. The goal is to present this information in as simple a manner as possible. Unica NetInsight is still considered a very advanced tool, however, and allows you to perform analysis on internal products behind your firewalls as well.
The reporting interface has been very well developed. Unica NetInsight is incredibly flexible on this front, offering customizable options for reporting formats. User path analysis is included, showing you the route your visitors have taken to arrive at your site and how they navigate through it.
The bigger your company, the more likely it is that you’ll have more than one staff member working on analytics. IBM understands this and allows you to not only add multiple users but to customize each dashboard according to their role or requirements.
Similar to FoxMetrics, Unica NetInsight also works with funnels to analyze and improve your conversions, as well as heat maps to give you a better understanding of how visitors are interacting with the elements of your pages. And if you use other customer relationship management (CRM) and Business Intelligence tools, you’ll be able to integrate them with Unica NetInsight because of the software’s open data architecture.
21. INSPECTLET
Inspectlet is not aimed at beginners. Let’s start off with that because although the web analytics tool is aimed specifically at usability, it can be quite difficult to use itself if you haven’t worked with analytics before. The reason it still makes the list of amazing web analytics tools that rival Google Analytics is because that’s exactly what it is. Despite being somewhat complicated, once you have the hang of it Inspectlet will give you a lot more than Google Analytics does.
As mentioned, Inspectlet has its focus on usability testing. The four main features are the heat maps, screen capture, personalized metrics, and—of course—real time analytics. It offers two types of heat maps: eye tracking and click. The former shows you where visitors are reading your content on the site by following their mouse movements. The latter, on the other hand, tells you how those visitors are interacting with the elements on your page by showing you where they click. A third heat map is also available, which monitors and reports on how far down your pages visitors are scrolling. Combined, these three functions tell you exactly what is happening on your site at all times. You’ll be able to identify your high points as well as your weak points.
Screen capture allows you to “record” a user’s session from start to finish so that you can see the data from the heat maps in action—again, in real time or retrospect. And of course, you can customize how all this data (and more) are displayed on your dashboard. In this way, Inspectlet promises to be exactly what you need, when and where you need it.
Conclusion
Marketing has never been simpler. Data is available at your fingertips and all there’s to do is figure out how to make sense of the information. Although there are various methods to gather data, the good news is that there are also various tools to make sense of it. Mainly, web data analytics software tools.
Data is everywhere on the internet, but how do you find it? How do you make sense of it? And once you have it, what do you do with it? That’s what web data analytics software is for. Web data analytics software collects information about your website’s visitors and analyzes it in order to provide valuable insights into your website’s traffic, conversions (if you are using these tools for that), and overall user experience.