traffic analytics?

[OPB]

I've been having a heck of a time with my traffic analytics programs (GA, Sitemeter). I'm looking for something that isn't a pain to access, provides detailed visitor info (keyword, search engine, country of origin, pages viewed..ect) and won't lag my site. I really never use any of the other features most programs have. I would appreciate any suggestions you guys can give (free stats or paid stats..doesn't matter).

[Randy]

I use Google Analytics and I'm pretty doggone happy with it.

[OPB]

Originally Posted by Randy

I use Google Analytics and I'm pretty doggone happy with it.

GA has a lot of positives but when we ran that and sitemeter at the same time it was missing around 20% of search traffic. I guess that could have been a fluke or sitemeter was wrong but it kind of turned me off to GA.

Sitemeter on the other hand has a terrible backend and they told me if I wanted to run it on two different sites I would have to create two accounts. Plus a while back I guess every website using them crashed for a short time when viewed with IE (6,7) which is another big turn off. Plus for some reason my CC payment didn't go through so i received an email saying my account was canceled and I've searched forever in the backend but I can't seem to find a payment option .

[Randy]

I use Sitemeter on a few sites, but the amount of data, even with the paid subscription, is severely limited. I also use Woopra on a handful of sites, but I'm not fond of it. Google Analytics has, so far, been the most useful Analytics software I've found, in spite of the possible under-reporting of total visitors. I'm still able to do lots of keyword phrase analysis and see what browsers people are using and stuff.

If someone has a better solution, I'd love to hear about it too.

[ThePokerBank]

I have tried a number of analytics sites/software, and Statcounter is easily my favourite. It updates in real-time and it is perfect for keeping up with what is going on traffic wise with your site from day to day (or minute to minute depending on how much you like to check your stats).

Having a traffic counter that updates in real time can prove to be incredibly useful, because if you find that you are getting a load of traffic to one page in particular from something like Digg or StumbleUpon, you may well want to optimize it for conversions (more so than you normally would) to get the most from that traffic. If you only use Google Analytics, which updates once a day, you are going to miss out on the opportunity to get the most from the short boost in traffic.

Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, so I run both Statcounter and GA. However, Statcounter pretty much covers everything I would like it to when quickly checking stats for information. I will use GA if I want to check something super-specific. The free version is very good, and I haven't felt the need to upgrade quite yet.

I've also tried Woopra too, and whilst I thought it was very good, I found it to be more of a distraction rather than tool for checking information. So I closed my eyes and uninstalled it. Haven't missed it, so was a wise move on my part.

[Sebastien]

My fav is clicktale, and I use it in conjuction with GA.

Clicktale records videos of your users as they interact with your site.

In my opinion this makes it the best traffic analysis software out there.

No amount of quantitative data can ever replace an actual video of what your visitors are doing imo

[OPB]

Thanks for the input guy. I think statscounter is just what I'm looking for (thanks pokerbank). I'm pretty sure I was skipping it in the serps because i thought it was a generic hit counter site or something.

I read about clicktale and it seems cool and I might watch a video or two but after that it would get old I think.

Thanks again

[Sebastien]

Hey,

Clicktale gives you 100 free recording a week if you want to try it out.

Honestly, I love it and I'm addicted to it.