I have to admit i was quite excited when i got my invitation code for Google's Web Analytics. It worked just like Gmail: there was great demand for the service so they made me sign up for a waiting list first. I was lucky because it "only" took about a month before they let me create my account.
Currently it lets me add up to 5 profiles (websites) to my account but they say this number will increase in the future. Five profiles suits me fine - there are only so many websites i can keep track of myself anyways.

Setting up profiles is very easy. I use Web Trends as well and i had a hell of time just installing the software. And squeezing result data out of Web Trends can also be quite challanging so Google's simple setup procedure was a very pleasant surprise.

This article is mainly about Google Analytics but there will be many references to Web Trends. I am not picking a side between Google Analytics and Web Trends simply because it doesn't make sense to compare apples to oranges. Each software has their target audience, strong and weak points. See last paragraph "WebTrends or Google Analytics?"

Features

Views

There are three types of views:

Marketer: reports on the marketing aspect of the website such as campaigns, CPC, conversion rates and keywords, etc.

Webmaster: displays web info such as browsers, entry/exit pages, languages, content reports, host names, connection speed, etc.

Executive: basically a combination of the marketer and webmaster view with detailed information about the key metrics of the profile (website)

Calendar - date selector

Similar to Web Trend's calendar, the calendar lets the user select the date range of the reports with many pre-defined dates. Selecting any given start-end dates takes one or two clicks only.

Graphs and charts

Using the "Google colors" the graphs are very 'crisp' looking and easy to read. Most graphs have two view modes (bars or pie). Easy to understand and very effective. Compatible with all major browsers, the graphs use Flash to display data. Really nice looking, too! :)

Help

Google has great help content for their products and it applies for their analytics software, too. Help is easy to undersand and use and covers all areas of the product. The Web Trends knowledge base and resource center, however, provides much more help content and they also have a support ticket system.

Setup

Setting up Google Analytics is easy as 1, 2, 3. They need the website URL. And that's it! They will supply a piece of javascript that needs to be pasted into the website. This javascript is much shorter than the Web Trends tracking script and Google will tell you wheter or not it is working in about 3 seconds. Testing the Web Trends tracking code takes (a lot) more time.

Advanced setup includes conversion funnels and filtering which is good but often times not enough. Web Trends advance settings include report designers, URL parameters, dashboard (reports) templates, session tracking, email campaign tracking, page and content group tracking and many other cool features.

Exporting data

In Google data can be exported into tab seperated, .csv and .xml formats and all exports need to be done manually.

Web Trends does .doc, .pdf, .csv, .xls and direct database exports. Exports can be set up as scheduled jobs that will automatically export data on a regular basis.

Top 3 cool Google Analytics reports

Geo map overlay

Visitors show as dots on the map of the world (on city level). Larger dots mean more visits from that city. When you hover over these dots Google shows you the percentage of visits from that location as well as conversion goal stats and ROI.

Conversion funnel

Displays a funnel-graph of conversion steps (eg: homepage -> signup page-> thank you page). This report lets you keep track how visitors reach (or don't reach) your conversion goals.

Site overlay

This reports displays the website associated with the profile and shows how many times visitors clicked on the links found on the site. This is very helpful information so you can change the location of links to improve their performance.

Web Trend's similar report is called SmartReports (it requires an Internet Explorer plugin).

WebTrends or Google Analytics?

It depends on your goals (and budget).

Individuals and small businessess are probably better off using Google Analytics (if they manage to get an account with them anytime soon). Google Analytics will provide all the information they will need about their websites performance.

Companies that are very serious about their web results and need a better understaning of visitor behaviour and analytics data should use Web Trends.

A friendly advice: Setting up and operating a Web Trends profile is definitely not a one man operation. At Agito Internet Marketing I work with two other marketing professionals providing Web Trends services to many clients. We are experts who can provide you with results that meet your expectations.
Learn more about Agito's web analytics services.

	Google Analytics	Web Trends
Pros:	• Easy setup • Compatible with all browsers (Flash graph) • Integrated into AdWords account • Free to use • Hosted by Google (doesn't use own resources)	• No waiting time to get an account • Sophisticated interface • Overkill setup options • Very very very detailed reports • Support is very knowledgable • Scheduled exports
Cons:	• Long wait to get enrolled • Hard(er) to get support • Some missing features (eg: email campaign tracking) • Number of profiles limited to 5	• Kind of pricey • Setup and maintenance requires a professional • Not compatible with every browser (Java issues) • Extremely resource intensive

The decision is up to you now:) Feel free to email me with questions/comments.

To learn more about tag based web analytics read this article by Keith Holloway:
What's the difference between the free stats programs offered by most web hosts and professional analytics applications like WebTrends 7.5 professional?

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