April 2007

Idealware intends to provide rigorous reviews of many different kinds of nonprofit software. However, it will take some time to create all these detailed reviews. Our A Few Good Tools series provides some thoughts in the meantime by recommending software that is used and liked by the Idealware community. They may not be the very best of their kind, but they have worked well for us. Perhaps they will also work for you.

How many people visit our Web site every day? What are visitors doing when they get there? Which features are most popular? Was that big redesign worth the money?

If these types of questions keep you awake at night, you may need a good Web analytics tool (and possibly a better mattress).

Web analytics tools help you track your site's statistics, allowing you to see how many people are looking at which page, what sites your visitors are coming from, who your users are, and more. This information can in turn help you measure traffic, understand your visitors' needs and behavior, and gauge click-through rates to new content or features.

Whether you're a nonprofit or a for-profit, your data-tracking needs are virtually the same. Yet given the vast array of Web analytics tools out there, selecting the right package can be overwhelming. To help you understand your options, Idealware talked to six nonprofit experts about the Web analytics tools that they've seen work well, consulted postings on a number of nonprofit list serves, and scoured reports on the topic. Below, we'll show you what to consider when choosing an analytics package, and identify free tools and robust applications that can help you better understand your site's visitors.

Which Data Should You Analyze?

There's no point in looking for a tool without a sense of what you want to track. Needs can vary from simple traffic monitoring to complex analyses on the behavior of specific user groups, support for multivariate testing, and more.

What important metrics and figures should you keep in mind when selecting a Web analytics package?

• Hits. This is a metric that likely doesn't make sense for you to track, but you'll hear a lot about it regardless. A hit measures the number of requests for text, images, and files that your Web server receives for a given page. Despite what software packages may lead you to believe, hits are virtually meaningless when it comes to actually understanding what users are doing on your site. Because the number of hits a site receives depends on how it's organized, not how visitors interact with it, this metric is useful only in evaluating information such your server load.
• Visits. The most useful unit of measurement in site analytics is the number of visitors to a particular site or page. The trend in the overall number of visits to your site over time can give you insight into your site's popularity. Comparing the number of visits to each page is also a good way to identify which parts of your site are most useful to your visitors.
• Unique Visitors. This is the number of site visits by different users. If two people visit the site three times each, you'd have six visits by two unique visitors.
• Page Views. The number of times any page was viewed by any visitor. This is often divided by visits to give a page-views-per-visit figure that represents the average number of pages each visitor viewed on a single trip to your site. Increased page views can indicate a more interesting site, or simply one that requires people to jump through hoops to find what they need.
• Top Entry and Exit Pages. Just as they sound, these are the pages where most people enter your site (and don't assume it's the home page) and where most people leave it.
• Referrers. These are the external links that people follow to get to your site. For instance, if TechSoup links to Idealware's site, TechSoup would show up as a referrer in Idealware's Web stats. This metric can be very useful in tracking a big influx to your site or just in staying on top of who's talking about you.
• Search Keywords. Many stats packages can show the words or phrases people typed into search engines like Google or Yahoo in order to get to your site.
• Visitor Information. You can discover a lot about your visitors through analytics tools, including how many are new to the site, the country or region where they're located, the Web browser they're using, and much more.
• Click Paths. Also called click tracks, or click trees, these are graphical representations of typical journeys through your site. For instance, a click-path chart might show you that 20 percent of your home page visitors go on to click the Resources link, while 15 percent visit the About Us page, whereby 60 percent then leave the site and 10 percent go to the Board page ? and so on.
• Conversion. This is a complex statistic that typically needs to be customized in a tool or calculated by hand. Conversion tracks the number of people who did what you wanted them to do from a given starting point ? for instance, the number of users that went from a Donate link on your home page all the way through the donation process, or the percentage of people who viewed your home page and then signed up for your newsletter.
• Tracking Registered Users. If parts of your site require users to log in, a Web analytics tool can track exactly what those users did during each visit to the site. (Without a login, it’s not practical to link up data for a particular person from one visit to another.) This can allow for more detailed analyses and understanding of what different types of visitors are doing on your site.
• More Advanced Statistics. While the features listed above should be enough to get you going, powerful Web analytics tools support even more sophisticated analysis. There are professionals who make a living analyzing Web statistics; if you have a large site and the desire to do deep usage analysis, you may wish to consult with one of them.

The world of Web analytics is complicated by the fact that not every software package handles metrics in the same way. Determining what sequence of Web actions should be interpreted as a "visit" or a "unique visitor" is actually very complicated, and different tools calculate this differently. Don't be surprised if your metrics vary somewhat as you look at various tools.

Software Offered by Your Web Host

So now that you know what metrics and features you're looking for, what Web analytics software should you use? It turns out, you may already have some of the tools you need. If your Web site is hosted by a shared hosting company (such as DreamHost or LunarPages), you can likely access some Web statistics through the same control panel you use to administer email addresses, check available file space, and so on.

AWStats and Webalizer are the two most common statistics packages available through shared hosting services. Both are fairly basic, offering information about visits over time, most-visited pages, referrers, search strings, and some data about your visitor's browsers and locations. Though Webalizer is a bit more popular, AWStats's reports are generally considered somewhat easier to understand.

Because these built-in tools are purchased and maintained by your Web host, no fees or installation are required. While basic, they are perfectly adequate options for those who simply want to keep an eye on their site.

Site Counters

You may have seen site counters on the bottom of Web pages. You can typically find these tools in the form of a number graphic at the bottom of a site's home page, indicating the number of people that have viewed the site.

A quick word about site counters: Don't use them. Nothing says, "My site was designed by an amateur" more than a site counter. There's no point in using one, as the free tools listed here will give you the same information without interfering with the look of your site.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics/) is in a class by itself. It offers substantially more functionality than the basic tools above, but is free (as opposed to the more advanced tools listed below).

Unlike tools such as Webalyzer or AWStats, you need to install Google Analytics on your site, which involves pasting a chuck of HTML (provided by Google) into every page. This obviously requires a bit of HTML know-how, but if you know what you're doing, shouldn't require too much effort. Depending on the size of your site and how it's set up, installing the Google Analytics code might take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a few hours. Once the code is added, Google displays your statistics in a custom reporting interface that you can view online.

In addition to the reports offered by tools like Webalizer or AWStats, Google allows you to find out how often visitors come to your site, tracks visitor conversion across a series of pages, compares the behavior of different types of visitors (such as new versus returning, or those from different referring sites), and much more. A selectable date range allows you to analyze any given time period, instead of being limited to a monthly view (as you are with AWStats and Webalizer). Google has a nifty feature that allows you to look at a rendered version of the site and see the percentage of people that clicked each link on a given page. It also offers robust integration to track the performance of any Google AdWords you have purchased.

Because the Google Analytics package is in an indefinite beta stage, some of the experts we consulted with cited occasional problems. Several reported difficulty in getting Google to show up-to-date stats, while others noted a very occasional loss in historic stats for an entire site. Google's customer service supports this product primarily through automated emails, so you may have little recourse if you encounter problems. The method by which this tool monitors traffic results in lower numbers (such as fewer visitors, and fewer page views) than some other methods. Also, keep in mind that Google offers its product for free because it makes money by watching you; by using Analytics, you're agreeing to let Google store your information and use it for aggregate reports.

Nevertheless, Google Analytics is widely used and widely liked. If you're building a new Web site, or have a bit of HTML knowledge, Google is a great free option for surprisingly robust analytics.

More Powerful Analytics Packages

If you find you're running into substantial limitations with Google Analytics, and you're ready to invest in a more predicable and powerful package, there are plenty of available options. The following tools give you substantially more control than any of the above packages; more powerful metrics; much more freedom to perform detailed user segmentation; the ability track detailed patterns; and, oftentimes, sophisticated data charts (such as trees or interactive layouts) that make it easier to track complex sites.

• ClickTracks (www.clicktracks.com). ClickTracks offers solid mid-priced to top-end analytics packages targeted toward non-technical marketing folks. Both an online version (similar to Google Analytics; you add a piece of code to your site and view the reports online) or an installed version (on your Web server) are available. ClickTracks is easy to use and offers many options for on-the-fly analysis of what different types of visitors are viewing on your site. Hosted packages are available at $25 a month, $99 a month, and $239 a month, and installed software ranges from $295 to $10,000 and up. Free trial versions of the hosted options are available on ClickTrack's Web site.
• WebTrends (www.webtrends.com). The well-known WebTrends has a broad user base and offers a variety of hosted and installed packages ranging in price from about $25 to $1,000 a month or more. While it's unclear if the less inexpensive packages offer much more than Google Analytics, their top-level products certainly do, with detailed data-mining features, including segmentation, click paths, conversion reporting, and a number of predictions and alert functionalities (for instance, you can be notified if your site reaches a certain level of traffic). Several of the experts we consulted with report that WebTrends is harder to use than others in this category, especially for non-technical staff. Their customer service, however, is easy to reach and helpful.
• WebSideStory HBX Analytics (www.websidestory.com). WebsideStory's HBX Analytics (formally HitBox) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and usable hosted analytics solutions, appropriate for complex and highly trafficed Web sites. Like WebTrends, WebSideStory offers a wide range of price points, but is best known for its high-end products.
• Omniture's SiteCatalyst (www.omniture.com). Like HBX Analytics, SiteCatalyst is a powerful hosted analytics package directed at complex and high-traffic sites. It offers powerful segmentation and data-mining features that integrate with the tools's other functions, like email campaigns and site search. Usability is also a strength. SiteCatalyst starts at about $1,000 per month for a package that would support the site volume of most medium- and even large-sized nonprofits.

Choosing a Package

The first question to ask yourself when deciding on an analytic package is: Google Analytics or not? Google Analytics is a good default option for a lot of organizations. That said, if you have a Control Panel and analytic tools available to you through a shared Web host, you may take a look at AWStats and Webalyzer to see if they'll meet your needs. Of course, if you're familiar with Web statistics tools and want more than the analytics and limited control that Google offers, picking a more powerful analytics package might be the way to go.

The right Web analytics package can make a big difference in your ability to understand your visitors' needs and your site's traffic. Choosing the right option means you'll be able to track exactly what people are doing on your site, get all your (and your boss') questions answered, and maybe even sleep a little better at night.

For More Information

A Detailed Comparison of Omniture and WebSide Story
A head-to-head comparison of Omniture and WebSide Story.

Marketing Sherpa's Buyer's Guide to Web Analytics Software
It costs $249, but provides detailed overviews of 39 different products and extensive advice on how to choose.

Gartner's MarketScope for WebAnalytics
A useful overview of the strength and weaknesses of 13 different top-tier stats packages.

Thanks to TechSoup for their financial support of this article, as well as to the nonprofit technology professionals who provided recommendations, advice, and other help:

• Mathew Grimm, Environmental Defense
• Darrell Houle, Communicopia
• Norman Reiss, Crohn's & Colitis Foundation
• Laura Quinn, Idealware
• Jon Stahl, ONE/Northwest
• Chris Steins, Urban Insight

This article was edited by Idealware; any errors or omissions are soley Idealware's responsibility.

© copyright CompuMentor 2006 - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

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