Website statistics offer the unique opportunity to track exactly how others are finding and interacting with the content you produce. Without them, you’re flying blind as a blogger or relying solely on direct feedback. While direct feedback can be valuable, it also represents a small portion of your readers. Monitor your site with an analytics program and you can have an advantage.
As a blogger, you have several free options. This article will take you through just a handful. I’d suggest trying out different tools until you find the one that’s easiest for you to navigate and understand. They all have their pros and cons!
1. Google Analytics
This is the stats tool everyone talks about. It’s free and comprehensive, plus it’s tied into all Google’s other products and tools so it can give you great insight on your web traffic. It’s not a real-time stats tool, so you’ll probably want to install a stats monitor below in addition to Analytics.
Installation: (WordPress and Blogger) Back to Basics: Setting up Google Analytics on your Blog
- How to read a Google Analytics report for beginners
- What are Traffic Sources? Google Analytics For Beginners
- 50 Resources for Getting the Most out of Google Analytics
2. Sitemeter
Installation: How to Add Free Site Meter Counter to Track Visitors. This is for Blogger blogs, but follow the same directions on WordPress blogs. Just add the HTML to a widget in your sidebar or into your footer.
3. Clicky
Installation: Their set up process should walk you through installation!
4. Woopra
5. Piwik
This is free, open source software that must be installed on your own server. This is a great alternative to Google Analytics for the technically inclined.
- Piwik: Open Source Google Analytics Alternative
- How to use Piwik instead of Google Analytics
- A closer look at using Piwik with WordPress
What’s your favorite web stats tool and why?
These are just five free options. Dozens of others exist!
Do you use any of these tools or do you have another favorite site monitoring system?
If you’ve tried any of these out, please let us know what you think!
- Five Free Tools to Monitor your Site - Jul 27, 2011
- #SITSpics First Monthly Photo Challenge! - Jul 7, 2011
- Using Google Analytics to Find Blog Topics - Jun 22, 2011
- #SITS31DBBB: What Did a Calendar Ever Do For You? - Jun 15, 2011
- #SITS31DBBB: Monitoring Content with Google Alerts! - Jun 12, 2011
- Spring into Action Photo Challenge Wrap-Up - Apr 14, 2011
- 5 Ways to Protect Photos on Your Blog - Apr 13, 2011
- HTML and CSS Photo Basics: Learn How to Style Your Blog Photos - Apr 11, 2011
- Photo Lines and Repetition Tips - Apr 10, 2011
- Spring into Action: Your Photo Tips! - Apr 7, 2011
- Spring into Action: Social Networking Tips - Apr 6, 2011
- Photography and Light: Tips for the Everyday Photographer - Apr 5, 2011
- Spring into Action: Free Photo Editing & Collage Sites - Apr 4, 2011
- Composition and Perspective Photo Tips - Apr 3, 2011
- Join the SITS Spring into Action Photo Challenge! - Mar 30, 2011
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Thank you so much for posting this. I forgot that I even had a Google Analytics account. Lol! I think I may also have something in Feedblitz, not sure though. How to read the stats is still very confusing to me. I am a new blogger so I am still learning. I am finding it very helpful though. Thank you for the other post on how to read Google Analytics reports. I will be bookmarking that to read again and again.
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I love stats and use them to help improve my blog. But I have to confess that I’ve not heard of any of these tools expect for Google, which I make extensive use of. I think it’s main downside is that since it’s a Google product, it relies almost exclusively on Google data. Bing offers Bing Webmaster Tools which gives you insight into visitors using the Bing and Yahoo! search engines, but it sure would be nice to get all the data in one place. I’ll have to check out some of these other tools and see if such an animal exists. Thanks for the great info.
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Google analytics is my favorite! Easy to use and very informative about your readership. Great post! I might try some of the others listed!
dana
http://theabundantlifeblog.com
I just started monitoring more stats besides just my visitor count..I’ve started with Google Analytics, and it seems great so far!
I love Google Analytics and I sometimes use Sitemeter, I haven’t tried the others though – thanks for the pointers, I’ll check them out and see if I can find something I like better than Sitemeter.
This is great, thanks, I have to spend some time on it though as I seem to have an older version so it says I need to delete it first…I am a bit afraid to delete something so shall wait till the weekend when I have time…
Hi Lynda, as a WP blogger, do you know if you can use any of these tools if you’re free hosted by WP? My experience has been these only work if you’re self hosted. Any suggestions? Cheers!
i use Google analytics but don’t really pay much attention to the numbers haha.. like I don’t analyze! so it’s kind of useless haha.. I should be more keen on it! Anyway, thanks for the other options =D
http://www.theblogforbrides.com
http://www.journeyofawoman.wordpress.com
Great tips, thanks! I’ve been using sitemeter for more than a year, but should add in some more tools like Analytics (I’m terrible about not paying attention to it). Thanks again Lynda! 😉
I use Google analytics and Statcounter and together, they give me a wonderful overview.
Thanks for this really helpful post! I use none of the above. I use Stat Counter. It’s quite comprehensive! But I’m curious as to whether or not Google Analytics might be better, so I’ll check it out.
I check my real time stats daily. The stats give me some real insight into traffic patterns, referrers’, etc. I use statcounter.com (previously used sitemeter). I do have google analytics but haven’t really done much with it…and really should do more with it. 🙂
oooooh good stuff. helpful info! thanks chicas!
I use Analytics and Clicky for different uses. Clicky is so cool because not only does it show IP addys, but for some reason, it is just more intuitive for me.
Google analytics so far is simple enough and works great for me. It also has a some worpress plugin so I don’t have to add any code to my header or footer.
That doesn’t mean I won’t check some of the others mentioned. Always good to try something new and compare.
I use both GA and sitemeter and like someone else said both give you good trending info. What I get frustrated with is the difference in number of page views between them.
Great summary post here!
Interesting list, I’ve only heard of GA and Clicky but I’m interested in checking out the others. I kind of want stats for dummies alongs with my GA. Something that will just give me the most important details. GA is great though for deeper level analysis.
As a brand new blogger, I find this info intriguing. (But part of me doesn’t want to know my stats!) I guess I have some homework to do. Thanks so much for getting me started. DM
I do a combo of GA and Sitemeter. GA because it works all my other Google stuff and SM because it covers the stuff GA misses (like ip addresses).
JetPack is a GREAT plugin that can be used with WordPress.org sites now too. It will show stats right from your WP dashboard.
In order to install it, you need to have a Freebie WordPress.com account. That might be confusing to folks who are only familiar with self-hosted WP blogs, but it shouldn’t be. Just set up a free WordPress.com account, then link it to the plugin in your self-hosted blog.
🙂
I have been using Google Analytics but ever since I had a new blog design installed it’s not picking up my data! I don’t know why. I use Statcounter too. Thanks for the resources!
When I got my blog redesigned, my GA code was removed (My designer just pasted a new template in and didn’t know about any “special” codes I’d added). Do a quick search of your template HTML to see if it’s still there and add the code to your template again.
Thanks, Narelle! I checked and that’s exactly what happened! I reinserted it and it seems to be tracking again. Thanks for the help!
Google is my “go-to” for everything. I like having everything in one place, makes it easier for me to find it when I need it. I also use my Awstats in my cpanel.
Ooh fun! I also like the jetpack stats for WP.org.
I use Google Analytics. Like your previous poster, it works well for me too. I really do appreciate your sharing the other tracking sources with us. That is very helpful! I will check them out. Thank you.
I use a combination of Sitemeter, Google Analytics and Awstats. I’m just a little obsessive when it comes to making sure any one program is doing a thorough job.
I’ve been really happy with google analytics. The only thing I wish is that it tracked actual ip addresses.
Analytics is always my go-to resource. The fact that it now integrates with so many other Google products that many of us use causes me to depend on it even more. I don’t think any are 100% accurate, but as long as you refer back to the same one every time you can easily pick up on trends. As you said, it is not real-time. I use WP-stats to do any little daily checking.
Great post. Good to know these five free tools to monitor your site. Google Analytic is my fave tool because it’s free and very comprehensive. Thank you for sharing this post!