I’m big into analytics. I track everything on my company site. There’s analytics that delivers basic information about how your search ranking is performing and maybe even some that tells you why it is doing this well or that it could be better. Then, there’s advanced track analytics that offers a much deeper perspective on how your online presence is performing for you so that you can make the necessary changes. I’m a much bigger fan of advanced analytics.
Over the past 6 months I’ve been testing out countless different ways to track my online presence. Everyone knows about
Google
Analytics (it’s free and why not) but there are also many other sources of great analytical data out there that businesses can leverage for greater insights online.
Here are six ways to get some of the most advanced track analytics about your online presence:
Google Analytics is truly one of the most value-added web analytics tools available, considering just how much data it provides for the price (it’s free!). This includes where your visitors are coming from, what they are doing while they are on your site, how long they stay, the number of times they return and more.
There are numerous detailed reports that you can customize to get specifics that you are looking for plus you can change these reports as you run various campaigns or refresh content. Since Google Analytics is relatively user-friendly, small business owners can also feel confident that they can easily learn the system and that they are getting all the analytics they need from this tool.
Mixpanel believes advanced track analytics goes well beyond page views to determine engagement levels. In fact, it measures what people are doing while on your website, mobile site, or app. This method also conducts funnel analysis to tell you exactly when people leave your site and why in order to improve your conversion rate. Retention reports detail whether or not people return to your site and how often.
Its people analytics provides details about your users, what they do before or after they sign-up, and your customer revenue. Mixpanel offers various engagement plans, from free to $150 for a startup or higher for a larger business. There are also add-on costs for the people analytics.
Algebraix Data has built a universal platform specifically for data that has you sending your data to an outsource specialist to handle all analytics so you don’t have to buy or integrate any specific software or learn how to do the analysis yourself.
The company applies the principles of algebra to data and turns it into mathematical objects. In providing the most simplistic explanation, using mathematics is a way to unify data management across multiple data structures. A more detailed set of data points across all aspects of your business results in more effective, faster decision-making.
Crazy Egg introduces you to the concept of heat maps, which are exactly what they sound like – a map that shows where the hot, often used sections of your website are located and where it goes cold with visitors. It even shows what people click on and how far down a visitor will scroll on a page before they go elsewhere or leave your site.
This map essentially illustrates exactly where you will need to do some redesign to the graphics and content in order to add warmth and usage throughout your site. It takes minutes to set up and doesn’t require any technical know-how in order to use or understand the analytics it produces. This can be a relatively inexpensive way to know exactly what you need to change to your site to deepen engagement and draw more conversions.
Clicktale also delivers heat maps along with session replays, which show the customer experience for each visitor, and conversion funnels to illustrate the path to successful conversions or where it all went wrong. Adding to this sophisticated set of analytic tracking tools are even more reports and ways to analyze your site.
These include efficiency tools, JavaScript errors, bounce ratios, site health and page consoles, trends and distribution analysis and demographics reports. Depending on the depth of analysis you need, Clicktale offers all types of free and paid monthly plans designed to suit your available resources.
Optimizely offers a dashboard where you can look at your data and make reliable decisions based on the Stats Engine that fuels the analytics you need. It was created with the assistance of Stanford statisticians who developed a new way to track the analytics around experience optimization.
To deepen the analytics you receive, Optimizely integrates with a whole host of analytics providers, such as Adobe Analytics, Bizible, Amplitude, ComScore, Kissmetrics, Mixpanel, Crazy Egg and Clicktale just to name a few. This level of integration offers a way to make sure you have your data analyzed from all angles and perspectives for more informed decisions. Best of all, there is nothing technical that you are required to know or do, and you can opt for a monthly pricing plan that fits your business size and budget.
Whether you are analyzing qualitative data, quantitative data, or both, you now need to go deeper than ever with analytics to assess how you’re connecting with and keeping customers in both the online and offline environments. With so much available data, now is the time to get the tools that will provide the most accurate information to direct your strategy.