Google Analytics analyzes your site so you don't have to.
February 02, 2016

Google Analytics analyzes your site so you don't have to.

Chris Coppenbarger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Google Analytics

Overall Satisfaction with Google Analytics

I recommend and implement Google Analytics for nearly every company that I develop and consult for. It only requires a few lines of code in order to set it up. I can then pass on the credentials to whoever needs them at the company so they can view the information regarding their website statistics. Google Analytics solves a number of problems with regards to business needs in view of who visits the site and what may need to change to either keep visitors on the site and/or attract new visitors. It also provides for the use of special campaigns to track new visitors. There is a live analytic view where you can see how visitors are clicking through your site in real time.
  • Allows you to deep-dive into each page on your site to see how long a visitor stayed, how they exited, and what they may have clicked on. This is important to better develop content for those pages to keep visitors longer.
  • A real-time view allows you to see where visitors go on your site from start to finish and how long they stay. You'll want to tweak your site based on these visits, even while they're visiting.
  • Campaigns allow you to try different setups on your site in order to attract new visitors or keep recurring visitors.
  • Better explanations of mobile browsing would help to gather information on what needs to be tweaked regarding mobile use.
  • Better views of the real-time use. It gets difficult to view and browse this at times.
  • It has resulted in better customer service in that if there have been issues with customers, Google Analytics can be consulted and tweaks can be made so that customers can arrive to the information faster.
AWStats and Google Analytics are both free products, however, AWStats requires a lot of technical knowledge to set up and install. It does provide a lot deeper understanding of your log files and you can tweak the settings to your specific site better. Google Analytics is easier to set up and requires a lot less technical know-how to use. I prefer Google Analytics right now because of ease of use for my clients.
Google Analytics is very well-suited for e-commerce sites and news sites where there is a lot of traffic. With e-commerce, you can tweak the site when you have specific products that may go on sale or you want to drive traffic to. Smaller static sites such as a small business with only information might not benefit as much from Google Analytics.