Free Tracking Services
Google Analytics
Until recently there were a wide range of companies offering
differing quality services, with a premium usually required
for more in depth service. But then along came Google with "Google Analytics".
By simply adding a couple of lines of code to each page
of your site you get incredibly detailed information about visitors to your site -
what keywords they used, what pages they visited, how long they stayed on each page,
geographical information (including a great map of the world with blobs
for everywhere you've had visitors from) and absolutely loads more information.
Sign up free of charge at http://www.google.com/analytics/
Did you know you can also
? Google Pack provides a single installer for many essential PC applications
from Google and other trusted partners. These applications improve your browsing with
increased speed and security, provide better searching capability for
the web and for your own PC and enable you to collect and organise your
personal data, including photos.
Products in the pack include:
- Google Earth - 3D Earth browser - Zoom from space to street level — tour the world, find maps, driving directions, hotels, restaurants, and more
- Google Desktop - Desktop companion - Find all your email, files, web history, and more
- Picasa - Photo organizer
- Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer - Search toolbar
- Google Pack Screensaver - Photo screensaver
Additional Software Included
- Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar - Web browser
- Ad-Aware SE Personal - Antispyware utility
- Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition - Antivirus utility with 6-month subscription to protection updates
- Adobe Reader 7 - PDF reader
Optional Software
- Google Talk - Voice and IM application
- Google Video Player - Video player
- RealPlayer - Media player
- GalleryPlayer HD Images - High-quality artwork and photos
If for any reason you don't wish to use Google, the following
are the best of the rest.
Statlogger.com
offers a FREE reliable web counter for your website. You can
choose from a variety of professionally designed counters, or
use the invisible counter option. The service provides a detailed analysis
including traffic reports, marketing reports, and visitor profile reports.
Goldstats
- One of the most comprehensive free package
available even down to whether your visitors are
Java enabled and have the relevant plug-ins to use
Flash, real audio etc. No banner required, just a
small company logo, but with an option to upgrade
to a graphic free version where rates vary
depending on level of traffic.
http://www.sitetracker.com
Basic information free (banner required) with more
detailed information available for a monthly fee.
http://www.thecounter.com.
Free Version will track number of visitors (unique
and total) with a visible counter, and will send
you a weekly stats report. Premium service for only
$16 a year includes invisible counter option.
http://www.extreme-dm.com/
This service has every stat you could ask for,
intelligently broken down by category.
Free Hit Counters
If you are looking for detailed traffic logging tools for your website and do not
want to pay the outrageous prices that some counter services are charging, check out GoCounters.
There are also several counters around, that require you to
add a small icon to the page you wish to track. However most of these are
not password protected and can therefore be read by any visitor to your site.
If you'd like to offer this transparency, eg to encourage advertisers, try http://www.stats4all.com
TRACKING ANALYSIS SOFTWARE
If your web host provides log files you'll need
analysis software. Check out the following
packages:
Faststats Analyser
Free, Regular, or Gold version available.
FastStats gives you the who, what, where, why,
and how of your web site, and does it at incredible
speeds
Here are just a few things FastStats tells
you about your web site:
- The number of hits on your web server,
and the number of actual users (people)
- The Browsers and Operating Systems used to
access your web site
- The most frequently requested files, images,
HTML pages, and directories
- Referring web sites (sites that link to your
web site)
- The search engine keywords used to access
your web site
- 404 errors (and the pages that linked to the
missing files)
- FastStats even lets you track the number of
requests over a time period for any wildcard
(i.e. a file or directory)
- FastStats allows you to filter the data --
zoom in on a specific type of users: people
using the Internet Explorer 4.x browser coming
from the software.com domain. FastStats allows
you to be as specific or general as you like.
Consistently good reviews
- Tucows: (5 cows)
- HotFiles.com: "If you have a Website with
access to statistics, you simply must try
FastStats" (5 star rating)
- The Internet EYE Magazine: "I love this
tool, it's quick, it's painless, and it's easy
to use."
- Lockergnome: "Website owners, rejoice!"
Summary: Good entry level program, well
priced, functional and fast. Highly
Recommended.
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