Clicky web analytics? What’s wrong with using Google Analytics?

Last year, I wanted something different that would quickly and easily show my who had been at my website in real time. This was especially important for my Craigslist postings to determine which ones were getting traffic and which ones were ignored. Google Analytics can’t do this so my search began. Clicky can track Craigslist visitors. You start by inserting the non javascript version of the code. If you need help with this, feel free to contact me for help. I have a sample code snippet below.

After much research, I found, tested and purchased Clicky

Setup Clicky on Your Website

If you’re using a content management system like Joomla or Drupal, it’s easy to install with plugins; you just upload, add your Clicky site ID and go!

• Joomla Module
• WordPress Plugin
• Drupal Plugin (I haven’t tested this yet)

Code Snippet

Don’t despair if your website is built in flat html with something like Dreamweaver or Contribute, you can still use Clicky by inserting the code snippet into the footer of your site pages once you get signed up:

Easy to Read Website Visitor Stats

I use Google Analytics to capture long term traffic information. Before that, I’d worked with Urchin, webalizer and awstats which comes with most shared hosting and Cpanel packages.

Feature Tour

I’m going to take you through screenshots and the benefits of using Clicky. This tool is good for individual website owners, bloggers, website designers and freelancers. The whole goal of collecting website traffic information is to take action on the information. If you collect some but it’s confusing, you’ll have trouble getting to your goal which is why Clicky is amazing!

Since taking these screenshots in June 2008, Clicky has added the ability to view browser versions (including Google Chrome) and the ability to email reports to your clients (very easy to read format too!).

Getting Started

Clicky has a free plan that allows you to track 3 websites. I’m signed up with the professional plan which I pay yearly subscriptions fee get many of the goodies you see in the screenshots below including: RSS feeds, the ability to see visitors navigate through sites in real time, track file downloads, tag and exclude certain IP’s from traffic

Why Clicky rocks

• Easier to use than Google Analytics
• Fun to use and easy on the eyes
• Troubleshoot navigation and usability in real time
• Clear to read information
• Built in Google Maps of your visitors
• Email reports
• Export your data in CSV and XML
• RSS feed
• Filter information to compare visitors, search engine refferals, browsers and more!

Easy To Understand

My clients are finding it easier to look at Clicky than Google Analytics. This is extremely valuable because it helps to empower them to understand their own websites. We can then communicate and plan website changes together.

Excellent and Responsive Support

Sean is the developer for Clicky and he is one word: Awesome! Check out the Clicky blog and you can see he is enthusiastic and responsive when it comes to Clicky. There is also a Clicky forum which is active and friendly. I’m just coming around to being a customer for 1 year and I’ve been very satisfied with the quality, turnaround, technical expertise and feature rollouts.

I always consider the quality of support when testing a new product or solution and often test it by sending over a question. I certainly don’t want my clients stuck with a product where I’m left holding the bag because they can’t get the product support staff to help them.

Comparing Clicky vs Google Analytics

They are similar but different. If you want information on what’s happening today on your site, Clicky wins. The main difference is Clicky is about the present moment, the “now” and being “in your traffic” while Google Analytics is about the past and “trending” over a period of time. This is a short version of the full chart of Clicky vs Google Analytics

Clicky in Action

These are just a few examples of the views and screens available to view your website traffic with Clicky. Installation is straightforward where you insert a snippet of code.

• View browswer versions of your website visitors
  Support for Google Chrome! This is really nice for programmers so they know where to focus their efforts for browser compatability. You could also use this information to notify your visitors they need to upgrade their browsers.

• Overview of web traffic
  Nice overview of your site traffic. Real time visitor traffic. If you have an online shop, you can tell if people are browsing through your products and exploring options.

• Google Map of your visitors
  Where are my visitors coming from?
  This is from my Craigslist posting in June so it’s good that the hits are local since I’m offering technology consulting services to the local Twin Cities area. If you ran a website that offer vacation rentals, you could use this to adapt your marketing message.

• Content view
  What content is working?
  You can use this to adjust your content so your visitors hang around longer rather than bounce.

• Screen resolution
  Is my website layout appropriate for most of my visitors?
  This tells me that I don’t have to worry about things being “cut off” or “too big” for my visitors. Take the top 80% and design your site for them.

• City view
  Get a bird’s eye view of where your hits are coming from

• Duration of visit
  How much time today did they spend on my site?

Google’s Turn

Digging deep into your visitor traffic still requires Google Analytics. There’s no beating the number crunching capabilities of Google Analytics. Want to see how many people made it tor your site over the last year from a search phrase? Google Analytics wins.

• Search terms
  What did they search for to find my site?
  Sometimes the keywords and phrases are interesting. Pay attention and keep a list in Excel so you can reveiw your content against these searches.

• Flash version
  If I have a big flash intro, are people able to view it properly? Many sites are still built entirely in Flash. Even if Google can index flash sites it doesn’t mean the entire site should be created that way. A site in flash is like getting dressed up for a New Year’s Eve party, driving there and then staying in the car while you call people on the phone who are at the party asking them to come outside in the freezing cold to look at your outfit. Possible but not very likely.

• New vs Returning
  This can be useful if you’ve launched a new promotion targeting a specific audience

• Number of visits
  How many times did the same visitor return?

• Duration of visits
  How long did they stay on my site?

Want Google Analytics for your Craigslist ads?

I will show you how to track visits to your Craigslist ads via live one-to-one training .