Best Website Analytics Tools
Data analysis systems and software can help organisations make decisions and improve business-related outcomes. Website analytics tools provide marketers with data and insights that can be used to identify trends and understand the users’ behaviours that return can be used to offer customers a better user experience and also optimise a website for key conversion metrics.
In this blog, let us share more on website traffic analysis, the benefits and how it works and most importantly, the current tools available to help with digital marketing.
What is website traffic analysis?
Website traffic analysis is collecting and interpreting key data points from a website on every user that visits the site. Website traffic is significant because the higher the number of visitors, the higher probability of an increase in lead generation.
Web traffic analysis breaks down data using specific metrics to help marketers understand:
- Where the visitors are coming from
- The time spent by visitors on the website
- Pages visited while on the website
- Top pages that visitors are attracted to on the website
With access to accurate and timely website traffic data, marketers can use this information when making marketing decisions and giving customers exactly what they want.
What are the benefits of website traffic analysis?
Website traffic analysis provides visibility into current and emerging patterns that show the website’s performance. There are many benefits to traffic analysis, but here are three key advantages.
- Target Market Development
Who makes up the target market? Which audience will spend the most money on the site and be loyal to the brand? Website traffic analysis helps marketers focus on target market segments with the highest conversion and lowest bounce rate to help maximise their marketing spending.
- Spend-to-Sales Ratios
Whether it’s website design, email, social content, or marketing campaigns, generating conversions requires spending money. Accurate website traffic metrics help marketers identify areas where the spending doesn’t meet expectations and needs.
- Lead Generation Success
Interested in tracking high-quality leads from registration forms, newsletter signups, marketing campaigns, and inbound content? Website traffic analysis helps marketers connect the dots to determine if the lead generation strategy is working as intended or if it requires changes.
3 Best Free Web Analytics Tools
Every site owner can benefit from having access to web analytics, and we don’t always have to invest in expensive enterprise-level platforms. So we have compiled a list of our favourite free web analytics platforms.
1. Open Web Analytics
Open Web Analytics (OWA) tracks all the essential metrics required from an analytics platform. This includes referral sites, page views, and unique visitors. On top of that, OWA can also monitor each visitor’s click-stream and provide heatmaps.
OWA can provide a deep insight into how visitors interact with the pages and map out the paths and actions visitors perform before officially becoming conversions. This information can help marketers to track and increase conversion rates. OWA also offers e-commerce tracking. This makes it a good choice for online store owners looking for a free, open-source analytics platform.
2. Clicky
Over 1,300,00 websites use Clicky to monitor their traffic in real-time. Clicky differentiates itself from other competing analytics platforms by generating heatmaps for individual visitors rather than collections of users. This level of functionality is typically only found in dedicated heatmap tools rather than broader analytics platforms.
This focus on individual visitors extends to other key metrics, as the Clicky dashboard displays information about each person who visits the site. This includes their location, referral source, time spent on each page, and their actions on the website.
Clicky is free for up to 3,000 page views for a single website. A range of paid plans is also available if it is required to monitor multiple websites or if the site attracts many page views.
3. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the go-to platform for many marketers because it is free, has chock-full features, and comes with the clout of the Google brand name.
After entering the Google Analytics code into a website’s HTML, the service will track specific goals, such as which pages a visitor clicks on, how long they stay, and the actions they take. For example, the tool can show whether a visitor shares the content on social media or clicks on an ad. Once a goal is completed, Google logs the conversion in the analytics report.
One of Google Analytics’ best features—especially for retail sites and marketers tracking purchases—is the Goal Funnel. With Goal Funnel, marketers can set up a string of URLs that a consumer clicks through when purchasing an item and find out how many people are going through the process of making a purchase and how many are abandoning it at a particular stage. This information will allow marketers to adjust their strategies and make the purchasing experience easier for the consumer.
Google will also report the keywords people search that bring them to the site and which browsers and devices they are using when browsing—not to mention from where they are being referred from.
When customising data, track specific campaigns driving traffic to the website, create reports with hand-picked metrics, and set up custom alerts to deliver insights at particular times.
Best Paid Web Analytics Tools
Web analytics is a powerful digital marketing tool that can provide the data required for any business with an online presence for search engine optimisation (SE0) and marketing purposes. We will be sharing below our top 3 paid web analytics tools.
1. Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a customer engagement automation platform that provides detailed behavioural analytics. This includes real-time analytics, conversion tracking, customer journey analysis, data visualisation, and segmentation.
Kissmetrics is particularly well-suited to the world of e-commerce. With an online store, marketers can use Kissmetrics’ insights to help optimise the sales funnel and convert new visitors into loyal customers.
In addition to providing analytics, Kissmetric is an email automation platform for creating targeted email campaigns. This can promote cross-selling to existing customers and increase the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
Kissmetrics also provides Return On Investment (ROI) analysis, allowing marketers to see which strategy is helping with the sales growth and focus more on them than on the other marketing efforts.
Kissmetrics’ licensing ranges from $299-$499 per month. It offers separate plans for Software as a Service (SaaS) and e-commerce customers.
2. SEMrush
SEMrush is a web analytics tool marketers mostly use to help with Search Engine Optimisation. The platform provides a wide range of tools to evaluate and improve the website’s on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
SEMrush includes everything digital marketers need to find relevant, high-traffic keywords to boost their search engine rankings. SEMrush’s analytics are not limited to only one website but also include tools to analyse different websites, including competitors.
These tools are valuable for researching keywords competitors use in their advertisements, organic and paid searches, and linking strategies. This makes SEMrush a powerful solution for SEO and marketing agencies.
SEMrush subscriptions range from $119.95 – $449.95 per month. A seven-day free trial is also available.
3. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is a website optimisation tool that can help marketers monitor and analyse conversion rates. Use this tool to see how visitors interact with the website content, including tracking their cursors and logging the areas where they click.
This can provide insight into the content driving visitor interaction and the content that needs improvement. Use this information to optimise web pages to achieve maximum engagement.
Crazy Egg also offers funnel analysis and A/B testing. This can be helpful for digital marketers and web designers looking to improve UX and achieve high conversion rates.
Crazy Egg’s plans begin at $24 per month and are billed annually.
Conclusion
There are dozens of traffic analytics tools available to help digital marketers monitor their own and competitors’ websites. Each has a distinct purpose and set of features, and marketers can combine them to get a complete picture of the website’s performance in terms of traffic and engagement metrics such as average time on site and bounce rate.
