I have read many reviews on the Internet, trying to decide what Analytics software to use on my high traffic blog. I have been using Google analytics for many years, but believe me that one feature was missing and that feature was the most important to me. The feature is seeing a backlink of the visitor. When I go to see the referring URL, I can only see the URL without the parameters. That means that when the user comes from a page (clicked a link that points to my site) with parameters, I can’t see and know the exact page the user came to my blog. I am doing Search Engine Optimization, and it is most important for me to know what are the best places that I should promote my website by just looking at the traffic and analyzing it. I was and still willing to pay for a paid analytics software, if it will provide me that information.
I really don’t know why google analytics does not allow use to see the backlinks as they are (maybe only at webmaster tools), and I was very disappointed not giving me this option. There are many free analytics software that does have this feature, but the problem is related to the fact that many of the features that Google analytics have they don’t. I guess you understand my point of view. Choosing another web analysis software is probably what I will do, even though that some of the web analytics software does not have all the advanced options that I have in Google.
Another thing is that I was thinking of trying Woopa web analytics software. I was in the beta phase, trying Woopra for the first time, and I really liked it. We are talking about real time statistics. There is also a woopra desktop software that enables you to see everything in a colorful and the most enjoyable way. The other SaaS analytic Software is called Clicky. This is a very nice service that gives you the ability to see and analyze your traffic in real-time (live). You can even see both bots and users visiting your website or blog. Clicky is not a robust product like Google analytics of course, but it gives you fairly good tools to analyze your visitor data and make changes to your website afterward.
There are many comparison sites, which compare web analytics software one against the other, side-by-side. I suggest visiting Top Ten Reviews website for more information regarding web analytics feature comparison.
Sometimes you only need one little feature to give you the right tool to make further enhancements to your site. I am a developer, and I understand how important is to develop a very stable and clean web analytics platform, because every bit of information is important. When comparing web analytics sites, I remember giving lots of attention to fine details, and I also knew that the name of the company hosting my data is as well important.BTW, That’s the reason why I chose Google analytics in the first place, because I trusted Google to give me a secure place to host my visitors online tracking data. Google did a great a job with Google analytics, and it keeps upgrading it by bringing new features and new integrations to other Google tools, and all of this for FREE!
If you are experiencing the same need for that backlink URL parameters feature, please write your comment here and share your thought with me.
