Whitemark posted at Cre8asite about a system that uses link navigation tracking, similiar to the mybloglog software you see here at SEOmoz. But, rather than showing each links popularity as it's hovered on, it asks the user to hit "ctrl+x" to view the nav percentages for each visible link on the page. It's a very spiffy system and as the writer, Glenn Jones, has made it openly available, anyone can copy and modify to their heart's content.
I foresee a day very soon when the best analytics software is available entirely free through developers like this. I only wish we had the time and staff to manage it.
Jon - I used ClickTracks for awhile and I wasn't impressed. Last time I was using it they tracked all links as the same, for example - if you had three home page links on your page they all showed the same number of clicks for all. It also didn't track outbound links or forms, all of which Crazy Egg does.
I do agree with your point that making the info public is similar to putting a counter on your site. I don't like the one on this site. Rand, is there a way that a user can disable it?
As of Friday Googles Site Overlay was not working.
As for making clickstream info public there are definitly situations, especially in commerce, where it can be useful. If you are successful in creating a strong clickstream you can add to it by giving visitors the additional information of "this is where most visitors want to go"
Hi,
I found these seo tools very useful especially the Sand box tool...
However my new problem is entering the key codes to be able to use the tools... the google key is OK, but I cannot get the yahoo key.
Any way I know this is not a help forum:)
Thanks, https://www.imcmake-money-fast-online.com
Hey SmithKarl...
......a href=.....https://www.imcmake-money-fast-online.com....r........nofollow.... >...https://www.imcmake-money-fast-online.....com....
See the nofollow tag around your spam?
Hey all
I just want to say I wrote a PHP/MySQL backend for this (as discussed in the Cre8 thread Rand mentioned). You can get it from https://ekstreme.com/phplabs/ajax-link-tracker....
It's really quite funky and free.
Pierre
Jon - I'd say that I'm just not interested in having our sites part of any guinea pig program that uses analytics data to affect the SERPs. It's not that I don't trust them, it's just that they are at the first stages of trying to implement this stuff.
Rand, good point about it being free. Luckily, I have access to ClickTracks! I think if this program has the functionality to hide it from the user then yes it would be a good tool.
On a different note, I'm curious as to why you think Google Analytics is potentially dangerous.
While this type of information is great for the site owner, I'm not sure how it would be valuable to the user. I wouldn't want users to see that type of information on my site. It seems like the equivalent to putting a counter on your site. Some people do it and some don't. To me, those that do take a bit of a risk.
Either way, ClickTracks offers this functionality as well and Google recently added it to Google Analytics. With these programs, you can see the same info but it's not available to the user.
Jon - But this is free. Clicktracks is pricey and Google is... well, potentially dangerous, let's say.
Besides which, if you want to make it password protected, that's an easy step, and most folks aren't going to go around the web hitting "ctrl+everybuttononthekeyboard" so you could use that as lesser security.
Good point about the privacy issue, though.
I'm a sucker for heat maps, so that Crazy Egg software looks good to me.
They also did a simple but brilliant thing: Asking for my email address so they can let me know when I'd have access to the software. Instant mailing list of interested prospects.
The Ajax system also looks great, but frankly, it looks to be a bit over my head - at least based on the description laid out on Glenn's site.
You should take a look at Crazy Egg. I believe it's still in closed beta but it's very, very cool. It lets you visually see where users are clicking on your site and where they're not. The heatmap is by far one of the coolest things I've seen from an analytics software.