Google Analytics
And here is the post about analytics. It's funny because we had looked around quite a bit at some different analytics solutions, and I am not-at-all surprised that we ended up sticking with Google Analytics. I wanted to at least start this post with some insight as to what went into our decision making.
The first thing to mention, which is something that I am becoming acutely aware as of late, is that we face different challenges and have a very different online business model from online stores. The reason I bring that up is that it removes one of the largest considerations (in my estimation) when choosing an analytics solution is it's ability to report on the money side of things. Cost per sale, total revenue, etc. are not an issue for us as much (althought we do have a small online store) as it would be for many of our subscribers.
That little brain teaser out of the way, here are a couple of the criteria that we had to consider. The first is that we need to have an online interface provided. Primarily this is because myself and Mitch work remotely, but we still need to have access to the analytics data. Couple that with the fact that Todd and Kerry both travel quite a bit, and need to be able to connect in and see what is going on. So we prefer to have online access to our data, which every company that I looked at provided.
However, there were some instances where although the data could be accessed from anywhere the analytics solution required that we each have a desktop application in order to analyze the data. I was surprised about this, but after thinking about it I can see the advantages to such a system. However, it is still limiting because it requires that I have my computer with me. To me this is a problem, as I can see instances where one of us might want to check something from another computer. In addition, we are all Mac-based and the software was only for Windows users. Again, it makes sense but immediately removes all Mac users from the list of potential customers. Probably not the decision I would have made. So we were able to define that we wanted a solution that we could access online and via a web browser, ensuring that the only requirements for accessing our data are a username and password. Now we're getting somewhere.
Considering that Google Analytics is free, I probably don't have to mention that it is very cost-effective. This wasn't a really big consideration for us, as we would have been happy to pay for our analytics services. However, considering that our analytics needs are more geared towards traffic measurement over ecommerce revenue, I was having a hard time finding features in other solutions that Google Analytics doesn't provide. I suppose another important consideration to mention is that we used Analytics on our previous website, which also was a factor. After all, if it ain't broke... don't fix it.
Having played around with it a bit on our last site, I was able to easily install it again. It's really just a matter of putting some JavaScript on each page you want to track. I will admit that there are some features that we would prefer to have that require log file analysis, ideally in conjunction with the JavaScript. However, I have been able to compensate by using some of the more advanced features that GA offers. I should say that it's very important to have a plan on what information you want, and to make sure that you understand how the data is going to compile in their system.
Which brings me to the biggest downside to Google Analytics, which is that you have to install it yourself. That'll happen, and personally I prefer it that way since I like to know how things work, and I learn by playing with things. However, I also think that one consideration that everyone should be aware of is how easy your solution is to install on your site. Do they offer an installation service or support? How much technical knowledge will it take to install it, and how much will that cost?
So far I am pleased with it, and using some of their more advanced tracking functions we are able to track certain visitor behaviors based on custom parameters that we set. Our site does use a lot of URL rewriting via modrewrite, so the site overlay feature does not work. That is another consideration when shopping for analytics solutions, is it going to work with YOUR website? What factors do you need to be aware of that can influence the data, such as URL rewriting? Seems like a bummer, and the site overlay is cool. If we were selling products that would be a major issue for me. I'm curious as I write this if any of the solutions that provide a site overlay feature will work with modrewrite. Interesting question.
I will end it at that, but you can be sure I will be posting more about our Analytics. Particularly as I get it set up to track our online store revenue and also to get some functions in there for particular pieces of data that we want to track. I am pleased to announce that our website is receiving a lot more traffic since we opened it up and changed the design. Our Alexa ratings are reflecting that as well. Thanks to our analytics solution I can tell you that not requiring a subscription to read our articles is a factor in that. In addition, our email newsletter EcommerceNotes is also generating a lot of traffic, which is great because we have some excellent content hitting the site in 2007.
