Understanding Website Traffic: The Pros and Cons of Using Google Analytics Versus Urchin

The use of Web Analysis is crucial for anyone wanting to promote a new business or

for established businesses to stay abreast on what kind of traffic is on their website. The Urchin Software Corporation are the original developers of the web statistic analysis program. In April 2005 the Urchin Software was modified by Google and then became Google Analytics. Although the Urchin Software is still available and can still be downloaded, Google Analytics seems to appeal to some more than others for a variety of reasons.

Unlike the Urchin Software, the Google Analytic Program is a free service and is in use roughly at 60% of the most popular websites. This program can be used not only to track traffic statistics, but can also let you know which ads are attention grabbers and which aren't. This program is so amazing because it doesn't take long to set up which is definitely a plus because who honestly wants a program that is too complicated and time consuming. The program gives a great deal of information about who is taking the time to check out your website. The information that is available really does gives great insight about what people are looking for and how they got onto your website.

Now, let's get in to some of the details about the pros and cons of the Google Analytic Program as opposed to the program that the Urchin Software Corporation originally developed. As I have already mentioned, the Google Program is a free service to people and the original Urchin Program is not. The cost of the Urchin 6 version is roughly $2,995. As opposed to Google, the Urchin program uses your web server to record and store the data which have some pretty great advantages. Some of those advantages include the ability to hold to and check that data anytime you want, the data can be audited by an independent third party which doesn't happen with the Google Program and it works behind a firewall. On the other hand the Google Analytic Program is maintenance free and much easier to implement if you are the type of person who is concerned about degree of difficulty with handling this program.

Google Analytics Loves Twitter

Tweeting, twittering, or whatever you want to call it has become one of the major ways that websites receive traffic. People will chit-chat about whatever and do it wherever and whenever (as Twitter has proven over and over again). When Twitter started this form of marketing was purely organic. "Check out this cool website!" Used to the earnest cry from one friend to the other. Now it is the tagline of the savvy social media expert. Because people are linking their Twitter page to their MySpace, Facebook, and Tublr accounts and vice versa there is a large network of opportunities to send and direct traffic from one website to the next.

In other words, Nirvana for marketers has been attained.

What does this mean for you, your website, or your blog? Well, it means there are hundreds of new ways to get traffic to your websiteif you know how to appropriately navigate the waters of social media.

If you don't already own Google Analytics, then download it. It's free and probably the best tool around for giving you the lowdown on your site from a user perspective (but that's a whole nother article). If you do own it, then you know that traffic from Twitter is tracked and logged as "referral traffic". For example, if a Twitterer clicks a link to your website from any tweet or retweet Google Analytics will provide you with see www.twitter.com' in its "Referrals" reports. There are also ways to see if a Tweet was the originating source even if it was passed along via email. For example, you may decide to use Google Analytics campaign tracking tool. Anyone visiting the site via a tweet can be tracked through the use of the "tiny" URLs. The "Tiny URL" services are out there to meet the needs of the Twitter community by shortening a URL (it creates a a redirect hosted at: www.tinyurl.com. The "Tiny URL" is applicable and can be added to the Google Analytics campaign tracking parameters. When a fellow Twitterer forwards or retweets your tweet using an email or other mechanism the "Tiny URL" will have all of your campaign information on it. Clever, eh?

Marketers have known from the break that Twitter has its advantages. The potential to chit chat about products and affect a wide audience it there. By using Google Analytics you can figure out how to get the most bang for your Tweets, which Tweets "scored", and where you need improvement.

Understanding Website Traffic: The Pros and Cons of Using Google Analytics Versus Urchin

By: Brian Scott

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