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11 Best Web Analytics Tools

 11 Best Web Analytics Tools:  Voice of Customer Tools

Kissinsights from Kiss Metrics (kissinsights.com) – Free to $29/month

One of the easiest tools you can implement (it literally takes a one-time Javascript install), the idea behind Kissinsights is to provide businesses with an easily implemented and customized feedback form for website visitors. On the businesses end, you can manage all of the questions you’re asking customers through a single and simple dashboard. The best part of Kissinsights is that your customer feedback comes in via very simplified and short comments.
-Recommended by Whitmore, Eisenberg, Levy, Steven, Fishkin and Lord

4Q by iPerceptions (4qsurvey.com) – Free

A 100% free online survey solution that allows you to truly understand the “Why” around your website’s visitors, the premise behind 4Q is basically to learn what people are doing while on your website. Surveys are a powerful way to glean important insight from your customer’s actual experiences on your site, and they offer short and simple surveys that answer the four key questions you want every customer to answer:

• What are my visitors at my website to do?

• Are they completing what they set out to do?

• If not, why not?

• How satisfied are my visitors?

-Recommended by Whitmore, Dershewitz, Bustos and Eisenberg
 

ClickTale (clicktale.com) – Free to $990 (3 months free on paid plans)

A qualitative customer analysis, Clicktale records every action of your website’s visitors from their first click to the last. It uses Meta statistics create visual heat maps and reports on customer behavior, as well as providing traditional conversion analytics.

“One of the things that Google Analytics doesn't do particularly well is tell you what visitors are paying attention to on a page and highlighting where those visitors are getting stuck during their visit,” says Peterson. “ Clicktale is essentially a video recorder for web site visits and provides great detail about mouse movement, scrolling, and dozens of other critical visitor behaviors.”
-Recommended by Whitmore, Peterson, Eisenberg, Steven, Fishkin and Lord

Dig Deeper: How to Make the Most of Customer Feedback

 

11 Best Web Analytics Tools: Social Analytics

Facebook Insights - Free

If you’re using Facebook for any part of your business, this is the simplest free offering from Mark Zuckerberg’s team in terms of analytics. It provides very detailed information about your follower counts, likes, comments on posts and more. There are two different types of Facebook Insights, based around both users and interactions with your content. Really, this is the best and only tool you’ll need if you’re using Facebook content to help engagement with your customers.
-Recommended by Dershewitz, Peterson and Bustos

Twitalyzer (twitalyzer.com) - Free

The most complete application for measuring impact, engagement and influence on your Twitter usage, Twitalyzer is a free analytics dashboard with detailed metrics. Similar to Facebook Insights, Twitalyzer gives a higher view of your account’s impact on customers, based on followers, retweet level, how often an account replies and engages in conversation, and more. Simplicity is key here, as you can just look up a Twitter username and get instant information.
-Recommended by Peterson and Bustos

There are plenty of additional analytics options out there, including Piwik, Feedburner, Percent Mobile, Mongoose Metrics, AdWords, Klout, Topsy and plenty more. It really depends on what you want to focus on most with your business and that’s what you need to analyze before digging into this process, but these cheap tools are a great place to start.

Dig Deeper: How to Use Location-Based Social Networks for Your Business

Lou Dubois is a Philadelphia-based Social Media Editor for NBC Universal's local news affiliate (WCAU-TV). He is an experienced writer, editor and marketer who has worked with and written about Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, focusing on social media, emerging technologies, small business success, entrepreneurship, sports business and corporate policy.  Previously he worked for Social Media Today, Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press and SOBeFit Magazine, along with various newspapers. @lou_dubois