The Standard Analytical Tool for Just About Any Website
May 03, 2014

The Standard Analytical Tool for Just About Any Website

Eric Karkovack | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Google Analytics

Overall Satisfaction with Google Analytics

I'm using Google Analytics to gather information for both my own website and the websites of my clients. It's mainly being used for finding the total number of page views, unique visitors and referrals from outside URLs. The majority of the time, I'm using it just for the basic tasks and don't get into the minutia as much.
  • It's great for detail oriented reports on web traffic and related info.
  • The maps indicating where users are coming from are particularly useful.
  • Very easy to create custom reports.
  • Easy integration with just about any type of website.
  • Ability to distinguish between mobile and desktop users.
  • The fact that so many search terms have now been blocked out of Google Analytics is a little troubling.
  • Even as a long time web professional, I still get confused about how to setup goals and other, more complicated features.
  • Documentation is not always as clear and concise as it could be.
  • When integrating with WordPress, it's better to use a plugin to help turn on some of those extended features.
  • Finding out where a site's visitors are coming from, where they clicked and how long they've visited can be crucial to determining what's working and what isn't.
  • While it's great to have some of the in-depth information, there are some people who tend to live and die with it a little too much. Perhaps spending too much time with Analytics and not enough time truly improving their site. In other words, it can be a bit of a trap!
  • When used as a guiding tool and not as the end-all-be-all measure of success, it can really help clients better understand what their site's visitors are looking for.
  • Jetpack
For WordPress powered sites, Jetpack provides some nice simple statistics. It' not really meant to compete with Google Analytics, but it's a nice tool for clients who don't necessarily want to dig as deep. Obviously, those who really want the inside scoop will appreciate the features of Google Analytics has to offer.
It really is the de-facto standard. While there are some other products out there (both free and paid versions), Google Analytics is simply ubiquitous. And, despite some of its flaws, I think it deserves to be at the top for the time being. In its most basic form, it's hard to argue with a free tool that can give you just about any sort of information you're looking for.
It's useful for pretty much any type of website. Frankly, Google Analytics is the standard bearer at the moment. Despite some areas being tough to figure out (for me, at least), at the very least it's great for getting that basic data that everyone is interested in learning more about. And, if you do want to dig deeper (and are willing to spend the time learning all of the intricacies), you can find out some interesting metrics.