Digital Interactif

Free Internet Traffic Statistics

If you haven't taken an interest in web analytics yet, there are two websites that may provide a spark for you:  Compete and Alexa. 

Compete
Compete provides a free service that allows you to compare the traffic numbers of different websites.  Essentially the service tracks the behavior of 2,000,000 Internet unique users, runs their behavior through an algorithm, and offers up it's estimate of a site's traffic.   It works pretty similarly to Nielson ratings.  (So, uh, if you are one of the people Compete is tracking...please come back.  Often.) 

A cool feature of Compete is that it allows you to get an idea of a typical user's behavior on various sites.   For instance, thanks to Compete,  you can gather stats on Facebook such as: Ave. Time on Site(14:08 minutes), Ave Pages viewed per Visit(44..3 pages), unique visitors per month(26.2 million people). 

Alexa
Alexa also provides traffic data on websites but it focuses more on a site's traffic rank than user interaction.  It is always good to compare Alexa stats against Compete, and vice versa, to give yourself a range for stats because neither site is perfect.  For instance, whereas Compete states that users visit 44.3 pages on Facebook, Alexa says that users visit only 31 pages per visit.  This 13 page difference is quite significant and therefore you should utilize both sites if ever using the services for a competitive analysis. 

The best feature of Alexa, in my opinion, is the "Sites Linking In" section.  This will show all registered sites that are linking back to the site.  Essentially, the more websites that link to your site, the better your site will do in search engine rankings and quality rankings. 

These two websites are great but there are still a lot of services/features that have yet to be developed, such as a company that provides free insights into RSS feed readership for various blogs/websites.  That would rock.   

 

Free Web Analytics Software

I've been keeping up this blog for over two months now and I figured I'd devote a little time to the various FREE Web Analytics programs that I have used: StatCounter, Google Analytics, Clicktale, Feedburner, FeedJit, and Typepad's internal counter.

StatCounter - Good for Bloggers
This tracking software provides free info on 500 page views per month.  I signed up for Statcounter and it has become my tracker of choice.  I have noticed some small issues with it though, such as not accurately recording 'length of visit' statistics, but overall it is the easiest to use.   Obviously, 500 page views per month is not a lot but I only average 15 unique visitors per day so it is not an issue for me.  If I were to ever generate a significant amount of traffic, I would consider paying for this service. 
Cool Features: Real time tracking, download your stats to excel, great keyword analysis, tracks return ing visitors by IP address and details visit history. 

Google Analytics - Good for Small Businesses
Google Analytics is a must have for users of Gmail because it requires no additional registration.  The service provides unlimited counts for page views and unique visitors.  The dashboard is designed well and utilizes charts and graphs for all metrics.  Though it provides a compehensive service I find it annoying that the service also does not provide real-time metrics, for instance you can only see today's data tomorrow(this does not bode well for the compulisive stat tracking bloggers).  There also appears to be a flaw with the 'visit length' feature for Google Analytics just as with Statcounter.  Both services show anything under 1 minute as 00:00.  As a reader of blogs, I personally do not pour over every word that is posted but skim for content, ideas, and links.  Therefore, I would expect most readers of blogs to be similar and not stick around very long once having seen one of my posts.   But why can't Google Analytics record this?  The difference between :05 and :55 is huge and Google deserves a slap for such a major oversight.
Cool Features:  Excellent charts, create conversion goals(i.e. entering order flow, getting to 'Thank you' page, clicking on a specific link, ect.).

Clicktale - Good for Creepshows
This is quite possible the scariest/stalkerish/creepiest/most interesting tracking software I have come across.   Clicktale creates a movie file that records the movements of a site's visitors.  It shows how someone scrolls down the screen and even where their mouse is at all times.  The main benefit I have gained from this software is that it accurately records visitor length whereas all of the other services do not.  I have found that the 00:00 length visits are more like :25 to :40 which makes me feel better/less irrelevant.  Clicktale is definitly a "see it to believe it" program and I recommend checking it out.  The tracking program tracks 100 page views/week and if you need more you must pay for the service.  FYI, I don't watch the recordings, it got old real fast and quite frankly I find it disturbing that people can track your online movements so closely.  I'd like to know how to avoid being tracked by such software, so if you have any tips, please share them in the comments. 

Feedburner - Good for Bloggers/Content Producers
This tracking code examines how many people subscribe to your RSS feed as well as how many people click through their reader to go to your site.  This is a nice suppliment to the typical tracking software and gives you a better understanding of how people read your blog and which posts are relevant to the people who bother to keep up-to-date with your posts.  Additionally, the Feedburner service was bought out by Google a few months ago and now the service is free(pre-Google you had to pay for it!).
Cool Features: Provides glimps of RSS stats.

FeedJit - Good for Bloggers
FeedJit is the widget in the top right corner of this blog that tracks real time activity on a blog.  I think this is a cool feature, but I wish it provided more in depth info for visitors to this site such as when people arrived, are they still on the site, how many total uniques, who is a returning visitor, ect.  I don't have much more to say about the widget.  As a reader of this site, what do you think?   Do you even want to see stats?

Typepad
I initially chose to pay $8.95/month for the typepad service because it came with tracking software.  Unfortunately, the tracking software is terrible.  It only records page views (not unique visitors) and it gives you no additional information aside from point of entry(i.e. keywords used to find the blog and incoming link).  Typepad does not provide real-time info like Statcounter but it's lag is only a couple of minutes.  All in all, the typepad tracking service is bad and definitly not worth $8.95 a month.  But honestly, until Typepad does me wrong, I'll stick with their mediocre service.

If you use Typepad, I can help you get the software mentioned above onto your site if you are having trouble.  Just drop me a line and I'll be happy to help.  As for the rest of you, sorry if you are creeped out by how much people can track you online, but it's the truth.