Web analytics are a powerful tool for site owners providing insights into website traffic and user behavior. By understanding how users interact with their website, site owners can make informed decisions about where to allocate design resources and how to improve the user experience. I have used a variety of web analytics tools for my websites over the years including Webtrends, SmarterStats, and AWStats, but now I only use Clicky Web Analytics. In this post, I’ll take a look at a few of the key benefits offered by Clicky web analytics are and not only how easy it is to use but also how they can make your website better.
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What Are Web Analytics?
Web analytics is the process of tracking, analyzing and reporting data related to website traffic. Each time a user visits a site a log entry is created recording a variety of metrics such as the IP address they came from, the page they viewed first, and the last page they viewed before leaving.
Although the data recorded is anonymous it provides insights that help site owners and designers not only improve the performance of their website but also improve marketing campaigns and even improve site security. There are many different web analytics tools available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. However, all web analytics tools share certain core features, such as the ability to track pageviews, unique visitors and time spent on site. Understanding how users interact with your website is critical to providing the best experience for your visitors.
Clicky Web Analytics is Easy to Setup
Without a doubt Clicky is one of the easiest web analytics tools to install that I have used. Once you create your free account at clicky.com just go to the Apps & Plugins page to learn how to install the plugin for your site platform. Your site needs to have a tracking code installed which can either be done manually or via one of the plugins. On my site I’m using the WordPress plugin. The tracking code
After activating the plugin you just need to enter your Clicky Site ID and Site Key.
Site ID and Site Key which are listed in your site preferences
Clicky can improve your site functionality
Do you know how are visitors accessing your site? Is your site’s design targeted more toward desktop users or mobile? On the Platforms tab you can see not only which browsers users are leveraging but also the time spent, bounce rate and whether or not they on mobile device or desktop.
Knowing the screen size of the device your visitors are using is critical for your site’s design functionality. Imagine how many customers an ecommerce site would lose if their site only worked on desktop computers with big screens instead of featuring a responsive design for mobile users or someone using a tablet.
Clicky’s bounce rate metric is also a great feature and is much different from any other service – in a good way. All analytic tools define “bounce” as simply just meaning someone who viewed only one page, but with Clicky our tracking code will continue to ping the servers while they are on your site for an extended period of time which gives us more accurate information about how long these visitors spend actually visiting you website or blog post. Please note that this feature is only available with the premium version but upgrading is well worth the nominal cost.
Clicky Shows Live Data and Trends
Using Clicky is like having your own analytics department without hiring anyone. Another killer feature is that the data is real-time therefore the metrics are up to date, which means you always have complete picture on what’s happening as well as how those numbers change over time! In the picture below the Views column shows the current page views and the last column shows a percentage delta from the value selected in the Trends menu. Trends are available at the top of every report.
The Spy report is a real-time stream of your site’s visitors and actions right now. New data is automatically fetched every few seconds. You can enjoy watching it refresh as additional traffic rolls hits your site.
Clicky is different from other trackers
There are many ways that Clicky is different from other trackers including:
- Bot Filtering – aggressive filters ensure bots are not logged including referrer spam bots
- Time on site – higher accuracy because the tracking code continues to ping while a visitor is on a single page
- Domain validation – ensures your tracking code doesn’t log another site’s traffic
- Site owner traffic – by using cookies your own site activity is ignored unless using incognito mode
- Noscript tracking – visitors without Javascript enabled can still be tracked using “noscript” method
- Campaigns – only logging a visitor’s landing page helps eliminates duplicate metrics
It goes without saying that these are just a few highlights of what Clicky Web Analytics has to offer. There are many more features available.
In Summary
Clicky Web Analytics is a must-have for any website owner. It monitors your website traffic in realtime with historic reporting that traces customer journeys, converting opportunities & more. Clicky is one of most complete and easy-to use web analytics tools available with a cleanly designed interface. Thanks for reading!
