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Google Analytics Vs Other tracking software. What's best?

by aj7877
14 replies
Hi,

I'm not sure if this is right place to post this.

I'm looking to setup something to track sales through my Oscommerce site. I have well over 100 products and have PPC campaigns, send out feeds to many comparision sites & also send feeds to google base. As well as this I have an affiliate program, which of course is tracked by the program provider. And of course there's the organic traffic.

What do I need to track where my sales are coming from so I can optimise my advertising spending? Can google analytics do all this or does the some of the other software out there do a superior job? What are the pros & cons of each?

Thanks
#analytics #google #software #tracking
  • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
    Analytics is good but some of the other tracking software is just as good and in real time.

    AWStats and statcounter let you track in real time and offer almost all the same bells and whistles that analytics have.

    Just my 2 cents though.
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  • Profile picture of the author kpjjf
    Analytics has just been improved again by google.

    What you have to think about is why pay any other comany for an analytics program.

    Google will always be updating theirs, and it can only get better as time goes on. It is hard to beat now.

    Kpjjf
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  • Profile picture of the author daelx
    My Vote is for StatCounter.com

    They allow me to view all traffic on all 40 of my sites in one quick view. This is awesome.
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  • Profile picture of the author onera
    Google Analytics is the best free real time analytics software that won't put a burden on server load. I will go with Google Analytics unless it is some thing that you cannot get it from the analytics. You can also get help from the analytics forum at
    Google Analytics - Google Analytics Help
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    Post Unlimited Free Classified Ads in the Oldest Online Classified Site.

    Build Links, Increase Traffic, and Make Money by Creating MySpace type Free Pages For Linking to Digg Style Submissions
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  • Profile picture of the author coco28
    I'm not 100% sure that GA gives the full picure - I prefer to use the hosting service's stats. Maybe thats just me tho...
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    • Profile picture of the author aj7877
      Thanks for the replies.

      I guess the thing for me to do might be to start of with google analytics and possibly statcounter since they are free/cheap. And then at least I can find our if they have everything I need.
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  • Profile picture of the author Desmon G
    I love G Analytics, but I heard that log analyzers are better.
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    • Profile picture of the author ironwood
      Because there have been a number of questions and posts about statcounter I put
      together a video that walks through the creation and installation of the statcounter
      on Wordpress. It also demonstarates using an FTP program to upload the plugin. I
      split the video in two parts so I could put it on YouTube without affiliate links. Here
      are the YouTube links.


      www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQOZiNCAPkw]YouTube - Adding A Statcounter To Wordpress Part One

      www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X61hDj3DcU]YouTube - Adding A Statcounter To Wordpress Part Two

      Hope it is helpful.

      Chet Hastings
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    I use:

    - GA
    - Woopra
    - StatCounter
    - AddFreeStats

    I like them all the same, but for different reasons. Each has its pros and cons. If I had to choose, I would choose AddFreeStats.

    AL
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    Every day I check the obituaries. If I don't see my name there, then I know it's going to be a good day!
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  • Profile picture of the author Talltom1
    Ya know, I'm actually quite surprised that I rarely ever hear anyone mention WebCEO. Personally, techy that I am, I REALLY like their product. Plus they have a good bunch of reference material and videos for SEO. Check it out. Downloads' free.

    Talltom
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    • Profile picture of the author melanied
      I am pretty in love with StatCounter.
      Signature

      *melanie

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      • Profile picture of the author ironwood
        Another handy and free counter is FireStats. Easily installed and produces
        very complete stats available in your Dashboard. You can download it free
        here:

        FireStats blog

        Chet Hastings
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        • Profile picture of the author Kamran
          GA is the best
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  • Profile picture of the author barrytan
    Hi aj7877


    Different web analytics products may use a variety of methods to track visits to your website. Therefore, it is normal to see discrepancies between reports created by various products. However, we generally believe that the best way to think of metrics across different web analytics programs is think in terms of trends, as opposed to numbers by themselves.
    One example is to compare related metrics, such as pageviews (eg. 15% of traffic went to page x). In addition, the comparison of data over time could be valuable - information such as "conversions increased by 20% over the past 3 months," or "our site gained 10% more pageviews in the month of March." In most cases, you'll notice that different analytics solutions, though different in numbers, will generally depict the same trends.
    While we're not able to provide side-by-side comparisons of Google Analytics with other web tracking solutions, the following list points out some of the main reasons your actual numbers may differ:
    • Terminology: The terminology used in one program may not mean the same thing or may not be measured the same way as in another program. Pageviews are generally similar between vendors; however, it's much more difficult to define a visit or a visitor. In Analytics, if a user comes to your site twice within thirty minutes without closing their browser, they'll register as one visit. Other web analytics solutions may treat this behavior as two visits, depending on their definitions.
    • Tracking methods: There are two main methods of tracking activity: cookie-based and IP + User Agent.
      • Cookie-based tracking relies on a browser setting the cookie. If cookies are disabled, cookie-based analytics programs (such as Google Analytics) will not count the visit. This would exclude, for example, hits from a robot or spider.
      • IP + User Agent tracking typically uses log file analysis for its data. This may report higher numbers than reported by cookie-based tracking because of dynamically assigned IP addresses and spider and robot visits.
    • 1st party vs. 3rd party cookies: Even among cookie-based tracking solutions, there's a difference between 1st party and 3rd party cookies. Because 3rd party cookies are set by a source other than the website being visited, they're often blocked by browsers and security software. Google Analytics uses 1st party cookies.
    • 3rd party images: Some browsers give users the option to disable images that are requested from domains other than the current page. Disabling such images will prevent data from being sent to Google Analytics.
    • Filters/settings: Many web analytics solutions provide data filters. Differences in the way that filters are applied, or creating different filtering altogether, can drastically affect the data in your reports
    • Timezone differences: If your web analytics solutions group data using different timezones, your daily or hourly data will be affected.
    • Visitor browser preferences: Visitors must have JavaScript, images, and cookies enabled in their browsers in order for Analytics to report their visit. Depending on their method of collecting data, other analytics solutions may still register these visitors.
    • Caching: Google Analytics directly calls Google's servers each time a page is visited, even if the page has been cached. Other analytics solutions may not record an additional visit if the page is pulled from a user's or server's cache.
    Was this information helpful?

    To your seccuss !
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