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Data is one of the most important and essential components which is driving business and brands around the world.
That is why companies need to analyze data in a strategic and comprehensive manner so that they can adapt to the changing demands and conditions of both customers and global economies.
Data managers, therefore, need to track statistics and interpret data in a manner that allows them to make good choices regarding marketing campaigns and growth strategy. These decisions, in turn, affect the long-term success and failure of any company.
Today, brands both big and small are therefore focused on using different data techniques to help them to track sales, stock, upcoming orders, expenses and many other elements.
This will help brands to see where their business is headed and the steps they need to take so that they can advance to the next stage of growth.
Web analytics tools are applications that help in the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of web data, with the goal of understanding and optimizing usage of the web.
However, web analytics tools are not just used for measuring web traffic but are a great tool for business and market research on one hand and can improve the effectiveness and usability of a particular website on the other hand.
In addition, web analytics applications can also help a company decide the results of advertising campaigns. By understanding the traffic to a website and popularity trends, brands can get a clearer grasp on market research, which can help them implement better and more successful campaigns that address their target audience in a much-enhanced manner than before.
With a plethora of web analytics tools available in the market, deciding the perfect one can be extremely overwhelming for brands. And that is why hiring a data manager is extremely important.
This means that is you spend 100 dollars on web analytics, it makes sense to spend 10 dollars of that on reports and data while the rest of the 90 dollars should go to someone who can help brands to process and understand that information.
This is because if brands are unable to process the data, then they will not be able to implement the findings of that data, and therefore not take benefit of the research findings.
While every brand understands that investing in web analytics tools and resources is an important aspect of ensuring success, it is only people who can understand the true value of data.
It goes without saying that while all web analytics tools cannot be used by a said organization, understanding them can help brands to use the relevant ones for their own benefit and advantage.
But at the same time, it is important to know that using multiple web analytics tools can help brands to gain unique insights while at the same time increase the success rate of the organization as well.
Depending on whether your business is small, mid-level or large, web analytics tools can help brands to understand data in a strategic and comprehensive manner, than ever before.
As it has been established that web analytics tools are the basis of success and failure for companies, here are some of the popular web analytics tools that can help them in the process.
Best web analytics tools are as follows:
One of the most popular web analytics tools, it provides brands with a lot of relevant data about website traffic on one hand and is also a web analytics free tool, making it ideal for blogs and authority websites.
Google analytics was launched by Google in November 2005 and is today one of the most widely used web analytics on the internet. In addition,
Google Analytics also offers two additional versions of the tool: a subscription-based Google Analytics premium which is basically for enterprise users and Google Analytics for Mobile apps that allows brands to gather data from Android and iOS apps.
Some of the most useful elements of web analytics Google are as follows: a. This tool allows users to view their most important web analytics data first. b. Google analytics allows users to find out which online campaigns bring the most traffic and conversions, therefore allowing brands to measure individual success and failure. c. Google analytics allows users to determine where the best visitors to a particular website are located, around the globe.
This tool provides users with valuable insights about what visitors are searching for on their website. All in all, Google Analytics has a lot of amazing features that are completely free, making it particularly ideal for brands/ organizations who have just entered the world of web analytics tools.
Another web analytics tool, Clicky is a free tool only when used on a single website that garners less than 3000 page views on a regular basis. However, there are pro plans available on this tool that can give brands access to a more varied set of features.
One of the most standout features of clicky is that it provides data in real time and is up to date. This means that the web analytics metrics are updated on a constant basis, thereby allowing users to have a complete picture of how their website is functioning and how the metrics are being changed.
Some other impressive features of clicky include the following: a. This tool allows users to track individual visitors. By adding the names and email address of visitors, clicky allows you to track visitors in a comprehensive manner. b. The tool offers users action based alerts to all its users. Besides standard per-page heatmaps,
Clicky also lets users view heatmaps for individual visitor sessions, including segmentation. For example, users can view heatmaps only for visitors who completed a specific goal.
In addition, Heatmap data is real time, providing great data analysis for brands. d. Clicky allows users video analytic tracking as well.
An extensible, self-hosted web analytics program, Mint has a simple and easy to use interface. The dashboards allow users to have access to visits, referrers, popular pages and searches, all in a single glance.
However, Mint is not a free tool and costs near to 30 dollars per website. Again, this tool allows users to view data in real time.
In addition, Peppermill, which is part of Mint allows users to make adjustments so that it is compatible with a ton of free add-ons that are offered by the tool.
Though it has a premium price, Mint is a great tool that is worth the money, thanks to its amazing set of features and data features.
Another real-time web traffic analytics service, Church Analytics allows users to customize the analytics section for certain segments or other criteria. In addition to website analytics, Church analytics allows users to track Twitter as well.
The Church Analytics API allows developers to view traffic analytics data in a number of formats. By deriving data in numerous ways like time and chronological order, this tool was originally developed by the developers of Standard Theme Framework.
A unique web analytics tool, Kissmetrics allows clients to track the movements of individual visitors throughout their websites.
Because users can track individual visitors, users can easily track behaviors over a period of time, identify important patterns and see the most recent referred among other important statistics.
In addition, this tool also offers a timeline view of visitor activity that is easy to understand format. Initially while using this tool, it is free but after a month, the plans start at a cost of 149 dollars depending on the data that is to track.
Because of this tool track individual users in such an intricate manner, it allows brands to create segments, thereby allowing for effective target and personalized marketing. Overall, kissmetrics is one of the best web analytics tools to help brands to create better personalization and conversion rates.
Another web analytics tool, ClickTale allows users to track how customers interact on their site. By viewing these interactions, brands can gain deeper insights into the behavior of their visitors in a much strategic and comprehensive fashion.
This tool allows brand managers to see what their visitors are doing on their site, visualize their interactions and thereby understand what part of their website requires more effort and work.
This tool allows users to know how effective their website is in a proper manner. It will tell you which pages and actions work best for your website and which requires more effort and work.
Let’s move to the next web analytics tools
An open source web analytics tool, Open Web Analytics was developed by Peter Adams. Written in PHP, it uses a MySQL database, thereby making it compatible for use on AMP solution stack on various web servers.
This tool effectively analyses how people use the web analytics websites and applications of the user. Comparable to Google Analytics, Open Web Analytics is server software that can be installed on any host while Google Analytics is offered by Google.
In addition, Open Web Analytics supports tracking on MediaWiki and WordPress on one hand and also tracks the website of your competitors on the other hand.
A web analytics tool, Crazy Egg gives users a competitive advantage to improve their website, without additional high costs. Developed by Neil Patel, it offers a lot of visual ways in which visitors use a particular website. Some of the maps offered by the tool include the following:
Let’s move to the next web analytics tools
Another solid and free web analytics tool, Piwik is very similar to Google Analytics. It provides an emphasis on the open source nature of projects. A PHP MySQL software program, this tool can be downloaded and installed on the user web server itself.
After installation, the user will receive a JavaScript code which they can simply copy and paste on their website. By doing this, users can access web analytics reports in real time and thereby gain better insights about their visitors and websites.
A somewhat different analytics tool, Cloudflare is unique because it places emphasis on security and CDN services. It is a strong addition to any website, as it promotes itself as a product that scans sites for security, utilizes technology to improve the speed of the website and also provides brands with unique insights about visitors that visit the website.
Another real-time analytics tracking tool, Woopra is a desktop application that allows users access to live visitor stats including their location, where they have been on their site and their web browser.
In addition, this tool also allows users to chat with the visitors of their website. This is an amazing feature for those companies that have e-commerce platforms as it can help them to increase conversion and create a better brand connect as well.
A limited free tool, it has several paid options for those who want to gain deep insights into their customer base.
Web analytics tools are today an important aspect of any company is it big or small. If any brand occupies any kind of digital space, it is important that they track their progress and growth through these best web analytics tools.
Further, if you want to grow and empower your brand, ignoring important web analytics statistics related to conversions and sales, can have damaging effects.
In other words, understanding customers and the way in which they interact with your brand in the digital space holds the key to future success and development.
So the best way forward for a brand would be to invest in any of the above best web analytics tools, measure the success with the subsequent insights and then tweak things in order to take the web analytics websites to the next stage of brand connect.
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