Stat-trackin’ your bloggin’
Statistics are are like crack to web geeks. You put all that effort into your site or blog and then you are naturally anxious to see the fruits of your labor. If you build it, they will come, right? And so you sit there. Patiently. Refresh……refresh……refresh, refresh, REFRESH!
There are a bunch of free stats tracking packages out there and a Google search for “web statistics free” will round up more than you need. In my experience, the best free options are probably either Google Analytics or Statcounter.
Statcounter is a great, basic package and is super-quick to get up and running. The free accounts have some limitations (namely the total number of logged visits it can handle before dumping the oldest), but the account can be upgraded to give a larger log for not too much $. It’s fast and the results are posted in almost real-time. There are a whole host of reports in there to choose from too. I give Statcounter a big thumbs up primarily for the real-time speed factor.
Google Analytics is the <insert name of expensive car here> of free web statistics packages. It goes into tremendous detail and can provide very sophisticated levels of info about the visitors to your site and the paths they take as they wander through. The results are NOT real-time, however, which is a little disappointing. I tend to use a combination of both Statcounter AND Analytics to get my fix. As you’d expect, Analytics also integrates tightly with Google’s Adwords marketing system, which is great for tracking the success of your campaigns. HIGHLY recommended.
However, if you choose to have your blog hosted on Wordpress.com (which, incidentally, is a great place to start), there is a problem with using Google Analytics worth noting:
When asked, “Can I use Google Analytics?” the answer is:
No.
We already use Google Analytics code to monitor the domain in ways that provide us with useful information to benefit the service we offer. It is not possible to use two instances of Google Analytics on one page.
(This is not a problem for other Wordpress blog hosted elsewhere. ONLY the one’s hosted on wordpress.com)
Hmm. Shame. May need to relocate this puppy some day, but a shame to shift it JUST because of an inability to use a given stats package. But then, stats are an addiction and addicts will do almost anything to get a fix. ;)
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
[...] Secondly, I wanted to use Google Analytics for my stats, but since WordPress.com already has Google Analytics code embedded in the templates for their purposes, they do not permit a second set of tracking codes and so it is not possible to use Google Analytics with Wordpress.com. [...]
[...] What you want is a community of loyal followers. Traffic will happen over time, if you write well. Don’t sweat the statistics (he [...]
[...] reported previously, I decided on using two statistics tracking tools - Google Analytics and Statcounter. Each has [...]
Nice post john. Good that they are already enabled for your blog.
Your post will be helpful to those who are trying to setup google analytics.
Enjoy stats.