With so many web analytics options out there, it’s easy to get lost. Here, we list some solutions you should know about, and point you in the right direction for more information.

Google Analytics

Google’s free offering offers a plethora of web analytics information for small businesses. We recommend it as a starting point for any do-it-yourselfer looking for a quick and inexpensiveway to understand the goings-on within their site.

• Go to Google Analytics
• Read more about it on Clickz.com: “Google Analytics: Rising Tide or Tsunami?”
• Read a May, 2006 review on e-Commerce Guide
• Read an Aug, 2006 review by Manoj Jasra comparing Google Analytics and VisiStats

WebTrends

WebTrends is one of the best-known names in web analytics, offering comprehensive tools that can be deployed as client-side (they call this “on-demand”) or server-side (they call this “software”) options. WebTrends is known for being high-end (ie, expensive) but has a variety of packages available.

• Go to the WebTrends website
• Read a 2004 review on PC Magazine
• Read WebTrends Small Business Reviewed on Atlas-Tuesday IT blog
• Read an infoworld review.
• Read Aug, 2005 info about various Web Stats Packages on webmasterworld forum.

Omniture

One of the biggest names in web analytics, Omniture offers a variety of comprehensive web analytics packages.

• Go to the Omniture website

Read a white paper comparing HBX and Omniture’s SIteCatalyst

• Read a product review on Infoworld
• Read a 2004 review on Phil Windley’s Technometria
• Look at all of their industry awards

Visual Sciences, Previously WebSideStory – Now Owned by Omniture

WebSideStory become Visual Sciences and was acquired by Omniture, however, many people are still using their legacy analytics systems.

• Read a white paper comparing HBX and Omniture’s SIteCatalyst
• Read an IT World Canada Review of HBX Web Analytics 2.5
• Read a June 2003 review of Hitbox Enterprise
• Look at all of their industry awards

ClickTracks

ClickTracks is known for offering a reasonably priced solution with many of the same features as the bigger names, in a more visually appealing format. They have a faithful following of satisfied customers. They offer both client-side and server-side options. ClickTracks offers a free version of their product.

• Go to the ClickTracks website
• Read a 2005 review on Mike’s Marketing Site
• Read a 2005 review on SearchEngineGuide.com
• Read about the free version of the product in a 2006 Searchday article
• Read Aug, 2005 info about various Web Stats Packages including ClickTracks on webmasterworld forum.

Coremetrics

Coremetrics offers only the hosted (client-side) web metrics solution, which can simplify the choices your organization must consider. They offer a special version of their system for each of these vertical markets: retail, financial, and travel services.

• Go to theCoremetricswebsite
• Read a product review on Infoworld
• Read a case study and interview on a biz that chose Coremetrics.

Unica, formerly NetTracker

Unica NetTracker offers client-side (they call it on-demand) and server-side (they call it software) solutions.

• Go to the Unica website
• Read “12 Cool Things You Can Do With Unica’s Netracker Insight”
• Read a customer review of a biz that chose NetTracker
• Read Aug, 2005 info about various Web Stats Packages including NetTracker on webmasterworld forum.

Performancing Metrics

Originally developed for bloggers, Performancing Metrics also offers a free version of their product.

• Go to the Performancing Metrics website

Measure Map

Another free web analytics tool designed specifically for blogs. (not signing up new customers as of 10/9/2006, but you can sign up to be informed when they begin offering accounts again)

• Go to the Measure Map website

AWStats

AWStats is a free logfile analyzer. If you pay a monthly hosting fee, it’s very possible that the statistics program that comes with your hosting is AWStats. This program requires a great deal of technical expertise to set up; it is not for the average website owner!

• Go to the AWStats website
• Read a review at Pay-Per-Click Universe
• Read a 2003 review which includes some technical details

Additional Resources

• For a comparison of several tracking solutions, see this 2005 article: Web Analytics Products
• A report that compares 73 web analytics services (prices $399/$549 as of 9/2006): www.idealobserver.com
• The Web Analytics Buyers Guide 2006 is $179 at http://www.e-consultancy.com
• Costly report by Forrester covers all the biggies. $995 at http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,36675,00.html

Q: I would like to create an area for our customers to read articles or news about our industry and our company. Should I institute some kind of blog format so that customers can comment on stories or articles? Will this be complicated to set up? Is there any advantage over standard web pages for posting articles?

A: Many people wonder whether to use a blog format for posting articles online, or whether a classic, tree-structured website navigation is better. We’d look at this situation from a few angles: where it fits into your conversion goals, your available labor, inbound link potential, and target audience preferences. Here’s a bit more on each of these:

Conversion Goals
If you are developing content that is clearly helpful in driving conversions, such as “Perfect sizing tips for your baseball cleats” or “Which is the right softball for you?” then we’d argue that it belongs on your site as an article. This is our gut feeling, because we think this type of content is generated less frequently and tends to appeal to a newbie audience, so it’s just better suited for a static page within your global navigation.

On the other hand, if you have “newsy” content – promotions, events, etc., that is meant to engage interested visitors and spark return visits, then it would be perfectly reasonable to post the content in a blog format. Similarly, if you often post brief commentary and observations, industry notes and links, rather than longer, essay-like research and articles, a blog would provide a better venue.

Do you have both conversion-minded articles and news items? You can always create a hybrid situation in which you use the blog primarily for news, but create a post on the blog containing a “promo” for, and a link to, every new article you create.

Your Available Labor
You sound concerned about technical work involved, but what about writing work? Do you have the writing staff to keep a blog current and populated with compelling content? Is blog-style content generation realistic for your particular industry and company? A lot of companies use blog authoring software to post their press releases, which is perfectly kosher, but that kind of arrangement rarely comes close to using the blogosphere to its full potential.

Inbound Link Potential
We think it’s reasonable to assume that a well-written, interesting blog will generate more links than articles, because you can generate more discussion on a compelling and dynamic blog than in a static article.

Notice how we went overboard with the adjectives there? “Well-written, interesting, compelling, dynamic?” Just a friendly reminder that content is king no matter how you add it to your website.

In order to gain the full benefits of integrating a blog into your existing site, you should make sure it is part of your domain, i.e. yoursite.com/blog. Then, start linking out to other relevant blogs. The blogosphere is a two-way street: you should link out if you want to get links in.

Target Audience
Think about your target audience and how comfortable they would be with your choice. Would your internet-savvy audience find a classic navigation boring and old-fashioned? Or would your more traditional or newbie audience get lost trying to use page tags as navigation? Keep a clear eye on your target audience and your long-term business goals, and make your choice accordingly.

Q: In order to serve more customers, my web development firm will be offering SEO, based upon the methods in your book. My question is, will passing my recommendations to other webmasters give away all of my SEO techniques? Wouldn’t this be “shooting myself in the foot” so to speak and give a rival webmaster the means to quickly offer their own SEO program using what I’ve handed over? How can I perform SEO and still protect my methods?

A: We don’t think you’re in danger of “shooting yourself in the foot,” for a number of reasons.

First, every website is different, and therefore your advice for every website will be different. Your value as an SEO depends on you giving out specific, well-researched advice based on target audience, conversion goals, and so on – not just a list of best practices. If you are delivering solid SEO recommendations for one website, most of these recommendations will not be transferable to another website.

Second, as we like to say, SEO is not brain surgery. It’s more a mixture of common sense, great writing skills, and boring little details. So, whether you hand them your recommendations or not, your rival webmasters can figure out how to implement basic SEO best practices by surfing the web, reviewing other sites, and reading our SEO book. The question is — will they bother?

And third, good SEO takes a lot of work! There’s much more to being a successful SEO than just reading your recommendations, or our book, or even memorizing basic best practices. For example, good keyword research takes hours. To be good at SEO, you also need to spend time keeping up with search news and developments to make sure you’re giving current recommendations. And it takes work and skill to communicate with your customers so that they understand and trust you.

So, as long as you’re doing good work and building up your experience, knowledge, and range of customers, you probably won’t be giving away anything by handing over good SEO recommendations – it’s more likely that you’ll just be building your reputation and creating another satisfied client.

Q: I recently set up a Google Adwords campaign, and it contains keywords that already have great organic rankings. Is it possible that the pay-per-click (PPC) ads might take away traffic from the organic results? Also, my conversion rate for PPC is about 4% while conversion for organic search is only about 1%. Can you explain this?

A: This is a question that is close to our hearts, since we primarily focus on organic SEO (or pay-per-click in conjunction with organic). Many providers only work with PPC, and there can sometimes be a rivalry between the two approaches.

We do think that PPC clicks take away from organic traffic in the particular case when you have a high organic ranking for the same term being sponsored. This is commonly called “cannibalization” and you can read some thoughts on it in this 2006 article by Gary Angel.

To quote from the article: “we found cases where half or even more of the paid traffic would likely have arrived from organic listings if the paid ads were not present. That means that the true cost of many of the keywords being purchased was far higher than the buyer realized.”

As the article mentions, and we concur: The easiest way to tell if the PPC clicks are cannibalizing organic listings is to turn off selected sponsorships for a period of, say, a week, and then watch the organic traffic for that term and see if it goes up.

Now, you also have the complicating fact that you’re getting a higher conversion rate on the PPC listings. Our guess is that your users are self-selecting: searchers who are more likely to convert are more likely to click on the PPC listing. We’re not aware of any research proving this, but we think it’s somewhat intuitive that people who are less likely to convert (information seekers, researchers, folks early in the purchase process, job-seekers or folks with other non- commercial goals) are going to lean more toward clicking on organic listings rather that PPC listings. In that case, naturally you’d find a higher conversion rate via PPC. In other words, your organic listings are casting a wider net, while PPC listings are “cherry picking.” It’s also possible that your PPC ads are written nicely enough to grab more targeted traffic – qualifying people before they click – and may be sending them to better landing pages. If that’s the case, congrats! It’s great news for your PPC ROI.

Choosing the best strategy really depends on your needs and preferences. If you are seeking to maximize total sales, maximize visibility (the sense of “blanketing” the search results), or maximize a conversion rate per visitor, then we see no reason not to continue the PPC campaigns. However, if a more efficient ROI is a top priority, or there is a budget cap regardless of ROI, then you might try to finesse your PPC campaigns, turning off certain “high cannibalization” terms and watching conversions to see how they are affected.

Our recommendation is to track both organic & PPC conversions keyword-by-keyword using the same analytics technique, and then do some experimentation with turning on & off terms until you reach an ideal combination of spending and conversions… We know this sounds easier said than done, but keep in mind that any PPC/SEO conversion studies that might exist are much less useful and meaningful than the real data on your specific business and audience that you can gain with your analytics program.