Item: Google Analytics
Rating: 10
Author: Victor Campos

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At PmD Interactive we use Google Analytics with every web design & development client we work with. It is used across our whole organization and is always one of the first things we set up with a new client.
There are two problems Google Analytics solves for us: "Where are customers coming from", and "how can we put that information to good use?"

Pros and Cons

Excellent detail on who visitors to a web site are (broken down to web browser, and how long they are on the site).
Information on which pages within our client's site are the most trafficked (including time spent on the page, and previous page).
A breakdown of where traffic is coming from (from which domain, and even which page within the domain).

The sheer amount of data can be daunting to beginners.
Organization of content could be made easier to handle.
The mobile experience is lacking.

Return on Investment

Being able to offer a billable, monthly service to clients.
After discovering inbound links, being able to create effective social media content.
Showing clients that the capital they have invested in has paid off.

Alternatives Considered

ThinkUp

Google Analytics works great for traffic traffic on your site, but doesn't address the issue of tracking data on your social media channels.
In this case, ThinkUp is quite powerful. ThinkUp can be set up as a self-hosted solution, and is very customizable, pulling signals from Twitter, Google+, Facebook and more.
Google Analytics, however, is the better solution for finding everything about your site's traffic.

Likelihood to Renew

We would continue using Google Analytics because it just works. After setting up the tracking property, it's just a matter of sitting back and letting it collect data.
Once the data is collected, it's time to analyze trends, spot problems, and make decisions for future actions.
With Google Analytics we, at PmD Interactive, are able to provide a complete solution to the problem of data collection.

Likelihood to Recommend

Google Analytics is best suited for owners of websites that understand the importance of data in the larger SEO/SEM realm. When they can see where their traffic is coming from, they can make decisions to optimize organically, or through PPC.
Google Analytics is less appropriate for a client who does not get much business from their web site, or their site is merely a "business card" web site. The amount of data collected would be wasteful in that case.

Usability

Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem.
Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Feel confident using	Unnecessarily complex Slow to learn Cumbersome Lots to learn

Easy Tasks

Seeing stats for all your sites at a glance.
Drilling deeper and deeper into the data.
Exporting reports to various formats.

Difficult Tasks

Finding the right screen with the right data.
You have to read all the documentation and watch the tutorial videos several times to understand all the data.
Setting up the tracking code the first time.

Letting Google Do What Google Does Best

Software Version

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Google Analytics