What is the best Web Analytics Software Suite?
I’m headed to the Emetrics conference in SF, Jim Sterne granted me a media pass, and I’ll be video interviewing key individuals (I’ve already interviewed some of the keynote speakers). A report was released today by Stone Temple Consulting which provides some interim industry analysis on which of the Analytics Suites. It reviews Clicktracks, Google Analytics, IndexTools, Omniture SiteCatalyst, Unica Affinium NetInsight, WebSideStory HBX Analytics, and WebTrends.
Which one is best for you? Well I like Avinash’s answer in my video interview, go for the free ones first.
Web Analytics? I hate the term, I think we should call it Web Measurement, as there are qualitative things that sometimes can never be accurately measured (or would take too long to figure out). Speaking of which, a white paper I’ve been co-writing with Matt Toll of Factiva Dow Jones should be published soon, look for that, I interviewed him recently too.
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‘Analytics’, to me, is the practice of turning all those reports into useful intelligence - that’s a step beyond ‘measurement’, which is a better description of these tools.
BTW I totally agree with Avinash!
What we really need is a suite that integrates with your products or services by giving reports about what products sold or received hits (by country and by season).
I made one for Subway, Baskin Robbins, and Eagleboys that gave reports on sales by state, town, or city in Australia. It also gave dynamic pricing for lower economy areas and pricing recommendations for other stores.
You can only do sooo much with a standard web analytic suite, what is important is the products or services your website is offering. Integrate them into your analytic suite and you are laughing.
If Google made their own shopping cart system, they could easily integrate the two together.
Jeremiah,
On the one hand, it was a pleasure to finally meet you in person today.
On the other hand, I have to disagree with you on the whole naming thing. Measurement is simply the collection of data. It’s counting, it doesn’t require insightful, passionate and intelligent people to do it. We can simply deploy a tag or a log analyzer and the counting happens automatically.
The best of the breed in web analytics set the strategy for collection of data (measurement), dictate how it will be segmented (analysis), turn that segmented data into information (synthesis) and deliver that information to the business stakeholders and leaders so that they can make well-informed (data-driven) decisions about how to operate (taking action) the business.
Furthermore, web analytics is about more than how many clicks, visits, page views, events and subscribers can be counted. Context is King in analytics - data cannot be interpreted in a vacuum, only in the context of other things can data be turned into insightful information, and context comes from multiple sources - not just your analytics package. Competitive intelligence is part of the context, system performance is part of it, user testing and focus groups are part of it, surveys are part of it, internal processes and directives are part of it and on and on.
Calling what we do web measurement is a disservice to the complexity of the work we do, which at it’s highest levels includes not only quantitative and qualitative data but is both informed by and informs the rest of the enterprise.
Web Analytics might not be the right term for what we do, but Web Measurement is worse.
-Clint
Jeremiah
Regarding Avinash Kaushik free analytics, I wonder if his love of free analytics is at all spurred on by his position as a consultant for the Google Analytics team.
Free is dangerous in sooo many ways!
1.) There is no contract or service level agreement (SLA)
2.) You need to be a good technician to implant the code properly
3.) You will need several good technicians if you want integration and bespoke reporting/analysis
4.) You need to be a good technician to get the most out of the system
5.) Consultancy for optimisation is something you would have to outsource or buy in
6.) You may use HTTPS but this does not prevent Google from keeping your information
Therefore, free might be good for SME’s that are just dabbling in analytics BUT any company taking their internet presence seriously will use a dedicated service from the likes of Omniture, WebtraffIQ, Webside Story etc.
Regards
Marcos Richardson
Director
www.webtraffiq.com
Jeremiah,
As with the above posts, I’m of the split personality type regarding the naming.
Web Analytics is a more descriptive and technical accurate term for what we do, but the end audience has changed - and is continuing to do so.
Web Measurement relates to reporting and does not imply the ongoing interpretation and analysis that is required to truly understand users’ behaviour on web sites.
It’s true to say that Web Analytics is in need of a bit of a ‘make-over’. It is no longer enough to simply report on site traffic, but rather on site insights. This may centre on quantitative data, such as traffic analysis, but should also include integration with qualitative data, such as surveys. This allows for a much richer pool of data, leading to more insightful interpretations.
Free tools are a good first step, and the quality of some of these tools allows for some quite complex analysis. However, it depends on what you require: if you’re simply interested in marketing response rates then there are free tools; if you’re interested in really understanding your users’ behaviour then you’ll need a more heavy weight analysis tool.
Ultimately, there are pros and cons to every tool. The majority of the clients I work with have very specific requirements, and therefore require a more tailored approach. This also tends to mean that their requirements will be affected to a greater or lesser degree by the different strengths and weaknesses of each tool.
Free tools may be appropriate for some, but many others may find that they quickly reach the ceiling of the tools capabilities.
Regards,
Sean.
Hi Jeremiah,
It was a pleasure meeting you yesterday, and I’m really looking forward to see the interview you did of Aurélie and I.
Interesting discussion on this post, but I hope you’ll excuse me if I don’t get into it (I don’t have all my head this morning as I have slept 3 hours due to the jet lag ;-)).
Keep up with your Podcasts and see you again soon!
Kind Regards,
René
CEO OX2
cant beat the freeness of google analytics
The tools don’t actually analyse anything, so I too feel we shouldn’t be calling them analytics. All they do is gather data and presenting them in ways that are ealier to read. It’s still down to us to analyse and interprete what all those values mean to us and our sites.
Marcos,
I think Avinash is just sharing what is obvious about Google Analytics regardless of his association with them. Until businesses are willing to spend the $$ on such tools, Google Analytics will remain popular among SMEs and even MNCs. This is the trend we see in Singapore. Very few businesses will consider spending on something like this, as they do not feel it would contribute directly to the companys’ profits.