Best Web Analytics Tools to Track Your Business Growth

You must be wondering, if both types of people live in the same environment, surrounded by the same possibilities and limits, what is the reason for their opposed opinions?

Well, the answer is easy: the former is overwhelmed by the “noise” of the digital world as he or she has not learned how to use the tools available on the market to make sense of the unstoppable flow of information.

The latter, on the other hand, has learned to understand the numbers and use the findings to optimize his or her business for growth.

You want to be one of the former? Then, you need the help of digital tools that allow you to dissect various kinds of information connected to your online business and use them to propel progress and growth.

Among these tools, there’s one group that’s invaluable when it comes to evaluating the impact of your digital presence: web analytic tools.

The Benefits of Using Web Analytics Tools

By using web analytics tools, you will be able to:

• Better understand your customers’ needs and preferences.

You will find out various facts about your visitors like:

• Where are they located?
• What kind of devices they usually use to access your page?
• What are they searching for?
• How do they react to different parts of your page?

… and so much more.

• Find your best content.

You can track the bounce rate for each of your pages and find out what kind of content resonates the most with your audience, and thus gets the most engagement.

• Track your top referrals and potential affiliates.

You can track the source of your traffic and find out which one of your referrals drives the most traffic to your site, or find the most clicked outbound links on your website.

• Track your sales.

You can easily access sales metrics and their origin.

All of this information will help you see where you stand at the moment, and allow you to optimize your business so you can drive more traffic, get visitors to spend more time on your page, increase your sales, strengthen the relationship with your top referrals and build relationships with potential affiliates.

Top 3 Web Analytics Tools

Okay, the benefits are clear, but which are the exact tools that allow you to take advantage of these opportunities?

Crazy Egg

Created around the premise that mouse movements and eye movements are closely linked, Crazy Egg uses heatmap technology to monitor and analyze your visitors’ mouse movements and clicks.

It includes:

• Heatmap reports, which visually represent the gathered data, so you know when and where your visitors click, how their customer journey looks and so on. Using this feature, you can find out which parts of your webpage succeed in attracting attention, and which one fails at it.
• User recordings, which complete the heatmap reports, as they provide information on the complete mouse movements of your visitors from start to end. While the heatmap reports give you insights into the parts of your page where visitors move the most or the least, the user recordings will help you conclude whether these movements are targeted or aimless.

Price: starts at $29 monthly

Chartbeat

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
Chartbeat helps content creators all around the world create a perfect first impression by helping them optimize their content and headlines.

Using Chart Beat, you’ll get access to:

• Headline and content optimization feature, which allows you to find the most compelling headlines and analyze what type of content attracts your audience the most.
• Historical reporting which allows you to check the public’s engagement with your posts and understand the content trends and patterns so you can optimize your performance.
• A data dashboard which presents the data in an understandable way, so not only can you see the behavior of your visitors, but you can also group the data and conclude which section or author is the most read and visited, or what kind of device your visitors mostly use when accessing your page.

Price: starts at $7000 annually

Google Analytics

We left the “king of free analytics” for the end for a reason: although it is powerful and free (unless you decide to pay $150 000 per year for the advanced “360” version), it requires pre-knowledge and tinkering so you can get the most out of it.

Also, the fact that users now have the option to block Google Analytics from tracking and reporting on their online activities raises the question of how accurate its reports are.

In any case, here’s what you can expect to get:

• Sales tracking, which allows you to clearly see where your sales come from and find other opportunities you can monetize on.
• Conversion tracking. Conversions are not equal or limited to sales. You decide what a conversion means for you – sometimes it can be driving traffic, other times, it can decrease your customers’ bounce rates and so on. Google Analytics allows you to set various kinds of goals so you can track how many of them are being accomplished.
• Keyword site search which allows you to track the most searched keywords on your site. This way you’ll know what your users are interested in, and what kind of information is hard for them to find on your page.
• SEO reports which allow you to see how you rank for individual keywords and what’s your position on Google’s search results page.

Price: Freemium

Final Notes

As Peter Drucker has stated, “what gets measured, gets managed.”
That is, if you are serious about thriving in the modern business world, you need to make it your habit to continuously keep an eye on your customers’ behavior and demands, follow what your competitors are doing, and keep up with your industry or niche market’s trends.

Web analytics tools are known to be one of the building blocks of a company’s success, as they provide users with information on what works and what doesn’t in their current way of doing business. Not only do they give companies the opportunity to see where they stand, but they also give a glimpse of their potential.

Of course, this information will only prove useful, if you manage to turn the information into actions, and build a game plan to get more attention, more leads, and ultimately – more money.

Author Bio:

Danielle Canstello is part of the content marketing team at Pyramid Analytics. They provide enterprise level analytics and business intelligence software. In her spare time, she writes around the web to spread her knowledge of the marketing, business intelligence and analytics industries.