Website Analytics

[Shaun Kelly]

Hi Everyone, im just wondering if any of you use a plugin for your website that analyse things like page views, bounce rate and session times things like that for wordpress/woo-commerce I currently have exact metrics on my the free version I didn't install this im not sure if this is a standard feature with wordpress or if it was added by my hosting company.

If you do use a plugin what is it and is it worth it in your opinion?

Thanks Everyone
Shaun

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Hi Shaun,

Google analytics is the obvious one. It's free and has plenty of detail to make informed decisions.

It tells you pretty much the whole story of what is going on:

• Visitors (New vs returning)
• Traffic sources (Organic, Campaigns, Direct)
• How people are finding you (to some extent)
• Engagement by page (time on page)
• No. of pages viewed per session
• Entrances by page (Where they are landing first)
• Exits by page (these are generally your weaknesses)
• Pages never viewed (so you can remove or enhance the SEO)
• Conversions (Sales and actions)
• Visitor funnels (to identify where people are dropping off)
• Visitor demographics (age, sex, location)
• Visitor devices and browsers (See what devices and browser may be performing poorly and could have possible issues)

There's a ton of information and it's free.

There is a Wordpress plugin for this.

Hope that helps.

Matt

 

[fisicx]

I don’t use a plugin, I just login to my analytics account and analyse.

If you are serious about your business you need to know how your website is performing.

PS: I prefer clicky.com to Google - the data quality is much better

 

[Andy Harris]

Hi Shaun,

As fisicx says, there are are systems that give more details than Google Analytics.

 

[Shaun Kelly]

Thank you for all your help guys. I will certainly check them all out.
Hope you all stay safe

 

[wayzgoose]

Spend far too much time studying analytics! I prefer Statcounter.

 

[iTechnoLabs]

You can use WP Statistics plugins. It allows you to filter data according to browser versions, visitors country, search keywords, IPs, pages, and more. It can also automatically email reports for all statistics.

Jetpack is another plugin which is free to use and a good option for small blogs, offering simple and easy to understand traffic reports. You will need a free WordPress.com account to connect your website to WordPress.com servers and run Jetpack on your site.

Apart from that you can use Google Analytics.

 

[Anesu Mutsau]

Dont use plugins, thing like Jetpack slow your website down because of cron jobs. Setting up google analytics is the easiest thing.

 

[fisicx]

Setting up google analytics is the easiest thing.

There are much better analytic platforms to choose from.

 

[Jon Hedger]

Google analytics will do the job perfectly and it's free.

 

[Solly]

If you have the expertise or willing to pay some one to do this, but Google Tag Manager is superior to Analytics, because you can program each page for the actions you want to monitor. It gives you a very accurate monitoring on specific actions and is vital for CRO analysis.

Do be aware that AMP can really much up your analytics.

 

[wpchris]

Google Analytics and the WooCommerce Google Analytics Pro plugin is a good combination. You'll find that it syncs across all the cart data to GA and you can set up your goals/funnel accordingly too.

If you are in the market for something even more detailed (with regards to eCom specific data and not 'website' traffic) - then take a look at Metorik.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

Besides analytics services I recommend you to use server log files from time to time to understand visitors better, identify bots, etc.

There is no problem to use plugin or any tool. Your choice depends on your goals and an ability to implement and to use a tool.

 

[Glen Wheeler]

Google Analytics, HotJar, Lucky Orange. Then lets say if you are using Shopify theres apps for that platform that surround marketing - Abandonaid & LoyaltyLion - however these don't supplying what you are looking for (bounce rates, page views etc.) There is also sites like clicky.com, Google Tag Manager and StatCounter. Also depends how serious you are about data and what you are going to do with it/how in depth you want it to be.

 

[Shaun Kelly]

Thank you for all your help everyone I've started using clicky and think it's fantastic for what I wanted
Thanks again everyone

 

[fisicx]

Clicky is brilliant. It’s far better the GA.

 

[HostXNow]

I like RankMath which is free. I know Google Analytics is advanced but I don't even bother with it, and it slows the website down anyway.

Unless you know how to use GA properly or hire someone who does know how to use it I wouldn't bother with it.

RankMath gives information from the search console to show which keywords are bringing in traffic and lets you improve the SEO for your pages.

 

[AlexTron]

Hi, I advise you to take a closer look at the jetpack plugin. A very simple and multifunctional plugin for studying analytics of your site. I use this plugin in conjunction with google analytics.

 

[Andy Harris]

Sorry, got to disagree with anyone who says that Google Analytics is adequate. GA gives only a partial view of what's really going on.

The only way to get more success from website visitors is to go through the following process:

1. Pick a product or service page that you want more enquiries about.

2. Weed out irrelevant visitors to that product/service page (e.g. from countries you don't serve).

3. Analyse every single remaining visitor who got to that page (yes - our product does that - see my signature) and what they looked at page by page beforehand and after. It's that depth of analysis that's important to build a bigger picture.

4. Ask yourself whether your enquiries/sales were good compared to the visitors to that part of your website.

5. Go through a process of working out what's missing in your website - and fix it.

Google Analytics gives you a vague picture of what's going on. What's important is to go into more depth, but focus initially on the product/service you want more enquiries about.

I have lost count of the number of our customers we've spoken to, who thought that GA was providing valuable information, and then realised how blinkered they've been for so many years.

 

[fisicx]

Hi, I advise you to take a closer look at the jetpack plugin.

I wouldn’t. Jetpack adds very little value but does add a lot of bloat.

 

[Ian J]

Google Analytics gives you a vague picture of what's going on.

Does it? I've never been able to understand what it's telling me

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I wouldn’t. Jetpack adds very little value but does add a lot of bloat.

The jetpack analytics module is nice and simple but, yeah, not worth most of the the junk that comes with it. Something like koko analytics does much the same without the added payload.

 

[fisicx]

Clicky.com still does the job for me. Far superior to GA

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Clicky.com still does the job for me. Far superior to GA

One of many alternatives these days, thankfully. I could never get on with GA, far too much data for the sake of it, far too little of what I actually want.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

Well said, @Andy Harris

From my own experience the major weakness of GA and "web analytics tools" is that they gather piece of junk. In other words, you get data that indicates visitors' source and their behaviour without ability to evaluate the quality of pages for visitors:
a) you need to look for rose in rubbish bin with a lot of filters, settings, reports, scripts which make your site slow
b) the data from GA are just numbers, so, if you don't know your customers this irrelevant data can't help you to improve your site in most cases.

P.S.
But, GA can help you if you use Google Ads (oh wait it is irrelevant data, so...).
Also GA creates overral picture that can help you in some cases. For example you can see how many users from social media.

 

[menetworkjadaltd]

I am fortunate enough to be able to code my very own.

Exactly what I need

 

[Shaun Kelly]

thanks everyone ive been useing clicky and it mostly tells me everything i need to know ive also been using pixel analutics which also gives me information that i wanted. Clicky can tell me what visitors have searched to get to the webiste and if they have come from promotions on social media or direct and also locations.Which for me currently is what i need. Thanks again for all your imput i appreciate the information and help

 

[Abijay]

Google Analytics any day

 

[fisicx]

Google Analytics any day

Nope. It’s the worst of all the options. Only used by those who don’t know any better.

 

[Alan]

The only time I use GA is when using Google Ads as it does make some things easier to setup.

For the rest I use Matamo self hosted analytics, I find it easier to see what is going on.

A general point on Analytics - I expect 99.9%of people that have Analytics have no real understanding of what they should be analysing or how.

Another general point, I find watching real user behaviour using recording technology like hotjar far more enlightening. Analytics doesn't show you the user clicking around on non clickable objects that are confusing them, or searching the page up and down trying to find the right bit of information. Serious health warning though - limit yourself viewing user activity - it can become addictive.

 

[billybob99]

The only time I use GA is when using Google Ads as it does make some things easier to setup.

For the rest I use Matamo self hosted analytics, I find it easier to see what is going on.

A general point on Analytics - I expect 99.9%of people that have Analytics have no real understanding of what they should be analysing or how.

Another general point, I find watching real user behaviour using recording technology like hotjar far more enlightening. Analytics doesn't show you the user clicking around on non clickable objects that are confusing them, or searching the page up and down trying to find the right bit of information. Serious health warning though - limit yourself viewing user activity - it can become addictive.

Can't beat Hotjar.

 

[UKSBD]

I'm surprised things like Hotjar aren't banned.

I guess it's like a gun, the gun itself isn't the problem but the person holding it is.

 

[billybob99]

I'm surprised things like Hotjar aren't banned.

I guess it's like a gun, the gun itself isn't the problem but the person holding it is.

Why should it be banned?

Helpful to know what page a user hit your website and where they exited + an actual recording of their visit is helpful to optimise.

 

[UKSBD]

Why should it be banned?

Helpful to know what page a user hit your website and where they exited + an actual recording of their visit is helpful to optimise.

It's not so much that these things should be banned but how people use them should be policed better.

 

[fisicx]

Why should it be banned?.

Does your privacy policy tell the visitor you are recording them?

Do you offer the option to disable recording?

As an aside, I use ghostery. Blocks everything.

 

[UKSBD]

Most people haven't got a clue on how they are being tracked.
Frightening when you know just how easy it is with these tools.

 

[billybob99]

Does your privacy policy tell the visitor you are recording them?

Do you offer the option to disable recording?

As an aside, I use ghostery. Blocks everything.

Yes, but according to Hotjar nobody reads the privacy policy.

They can opt out if they decline to accept the cookies - nobody does.

I use Ghostery as well, but a lot of people don't.

 

[fisicx]

Browsers will pretty much block all third party trackers by default soon. All advertisers are getting quite upset about it.

 

[Ali9000]

Bro, following are the reasons why Google Analytics is the Best:
1. Audience Targeting (provides the ability to group audience based on their behavior on your website)
2.Customer Acquisition ( it show you data about where your website visitors come from, such as search engine organic results, paid search results, social networks, direct visitors, or referrals from other websites and behaviors (conversions) for each channel visitors)
3.Comparison (Data is always available to use in performance comparison between current performance and any period)

Google Analytics must be used for every website and also it's for free

 

[fisicx]

Google Analytics must be used for every website and also it's for free

It's not the best. Pretty much every other Analytics application has better data quality.