As a new SEO, I've found that one particular part of my job provides both a lot of satisfaction and a great deal of frustration. No, it's not attempting to talk to the big-shots at conferences (I'm female; advantage Copland), it's using analytics. I spent a whole afternoon enthralled with a list of a client's referrers once, but I've also spent a great deal of time trying to wade through the less intuitive analytics tools.
I've never understood why people sort, name and display features in (what seems to be) the most complicated way possible. The first thing Rand had me do when I was hired at SEOmoz was to read Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think, which emphasizes the importance of structuring a website in the most user-friendly way possible, and keeping effectiveness in mind, I believe the same should apply to analytics. Inventing impressive names for simple things, creating graphs that are too small for the content that goes into them and loading a page with numerous options are but a small number of the odd things I've come across lately.
Rand's already blogged about comparing analytics programs, but I wonder how streamlined an analytics tool could be while retaining its usefulness? Where is the happy place between clunky and puzzling, and too basic to be effective?
By: Jane Copland
You Made Me Think!
Analytics
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
I think it's a cost/benefit question. While I have some issues with Google Analytics, I'm really surprised by how many people dislike it. We're using it for a great deal of clients now because it's intuitive, provides a variety of ways to parse the data, and well -- free. Plus, as it's now a Google property we're fairly well assured that it will continue to be improved over time.
The only problems I've had have been with filtering out a few referrers that I don't want tracked. Other than that it's jumped every hoop I need. Including real-time e-commerce tracking.
We've invested in supposedly great analytics programs before, and been horribly disappointed.
yes Google Analytics is free, but you do get what you pay for. It's virtually impossible to get any support, you can write to a support email but you are lucky if you get a reply back within a month.
And also I have done the mistake thinking it's got to be good as it's from Google...Nah, just a simple thing like assuming that of course Google would automatically pick up referrers from Google PPC campaigns. Nope, had to add source codes to each PPC campaign url.
What ever happened to this idea of Extensible Analytics Applications? Is there anything like it out there now?
I would not mind hearing more on this subject, google analytics just doesn't cut it but can I find something for small to mid-size sites without spending a fortune?
Hi Jane,
You hit the nail on the head. We have been having the same problem sourcing the "ultimate" analytics package. We have had about 4 online demos and 2 face to face meetings, so a total of 6 very different analytics tools pitched for us. And we are still not blown away by any of them. The major issue is when you have very different needs for different clients. My clients range from simple landing pages with a few downloads to very complicated sites with in depth databases (job boards you name it). Most of our site is also content managed which doesn't make it any easier.
Then you have to chose whether to go for a log file based analytics tool or a hosted service. What is best? It all depends.
The last company we met with was SCL Analytics They seem promising and I think the biggest difference with these guys is that you can do exactly what simmal_tree and visser was discussing. You can basically drag and drop any information and it will automatically configure the changes into graphs, tables etc Which is pretty cool. And it literally populates in seconds.
One thing is for sure Google Analytics is certainly not doing it for me, just makes me want to bang my head aginst the wall..
I'm also mightily frustrated with tools that take ten years to load. Sometimes it feels like: hit enter, check email, look at Facebook, comment on blog, surf internet radio station options, pour cup of coffee, return to desk and watch page finally load.
Jane,
You might also be interested in investigating some of Edward Tufte's books. I understand that he started out as a statistician looking for ways to better present data. His website states that he "writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on analytical design".
He is not without controversy in the design world, but his books and concepts are certainly worth examining. One of his more famous presentations of data is an analysis of the Challenger launch decision, and how he would have presented the data regarding the temperature and O-ring failures.
His website is at www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index
Love Edward Tufte! He does a one-day seminar that I would recommend to anyone.
Let's start the next big thing... EAA - Extensible Analytics Applications ...
Have a basic Analytics package with plugins, add-ons, or extensions for increased functionality, customization, personalized features, etc.
I like the idea of plugins and add-ons. Take what you need, don't touch what you don't.
I wonder if there is an Open Source analytics application like this already. If not, whoever comes out with it will be very popular. If there was a basic framework to start with, and then as you said Jane, "take what you need, don't touch what you don't."
Kind of like Wordpress and Firefox and other things out there with extensions and plugins.
I don't think many of the current analytics companies do very good tracking of their own products and their own customers' behaviour and that is why their product offering is either limited in features, or difficult to use.
I can really see something like this kicking off. I'm already phasing out to the idea.
Whereby you could take any raw statistic and run: - Pie chart - Bar graph - Data over time - Region - Referrer over it... sweet.
So what do we need to do to make something like this happen?
User-friendly analytic-tools are what we needed. Theyre of course webbased, as today, and show us the information on a educationalist - way. Just like everything else.
Yes, but, Jane: you're quite right. There seems to be a trend in some companies to use confusing titles for functions. Where the title wouldn't be confusing, you can (a) use an icon instead of a title or (b) make up a new term for it.
Don't ask me why. :)
It's simple - if you can't dazzle the clients or users with brilliance then baffle them with bull excrement :)
Bingo... nothing like some confusing nonsense to convince people that something is more advanced and impressive than it really is.
Hi Jane,
As one of the people that is working on the project Rand initiated (Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting) I can tell you that you have hit on one of the big issues in Analytics.
Different packages offer different solutions to the problem (the problem being give me the damn data I want! Not all this other crap!).
Some packages offer tons of off the shelf reports. You then need to sift through it all to find what you want. Other packages don't confuse you with endless reports, but you need to design the reports you want (i.e. custom engineering work).
So there is no easy answer to the question you raise. The key is to pick the package that works best for you.
A really good question! Google Analytics are not user-friendly and take more time than it necesseray need if the tools where structured easily.
The best tool I have worked with is a swedish tool called "Webstat" https://webstat.se.It´s structured better than most of the other analytics-tools than I have test and have many great things.
But, as usual, is it not complete so it´s not enough to have.