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8 Web Analytics Tools Every Small Business Needs to Succeed

Here are 8 web analytics tools that every small business can benefit from...

What role does measurement and tracking play in your small business? If you measure everything then it is likely that you realize the power of  discovering meaningful patterns in your company’s data — sales, customer, operational and more.

These days there is “so much data and so little business intelligence,” according to Seshu Edala a data scientist with Manta.com. “That’s the irony of the information age, which is adding another 2.5 quintillion bytes to the data universe each day. Companies can either get buried by this avalanche of big data or use technology tools to mine its riches.”

But thankfully there are tools that make data analysis, tracking and measurement much easier for small businesses. Here are 8 analytics tools that every small business can benefit from:

 

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visits to your company’s website. The online product is built for marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists — which lends itself to a more user-friendly approach for novices and pros alike.

Google Analytics lets you measure your advertising ROI and track your Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications within a aesthetically pleasing online dashboard. Best of all — it is free.

 

2. KISSmetrics

Wouldn’t you love to track every single interaction a person has with your business? If so, KISSmetrics is for you. Their web analytics software aims to help you increase customer acquisition, improve retention rates and give you the knowledge you need to make better business decisions.

Their person-based analytics platform for your entire team takes the guesswork out of analytics by helping users identify, understand, and improve the metrics that drive their online businesses. They offer solutions that let you understand your customer lifetime value, who’s buying, where they come from and what’s getting you repeat purchases to how people are interacting with your mobile apps, what brings them back and more.

 

3. Chartbeat

Chartbeat is a betaworks company that provides real-time data for front-line doers who manage websites and blogs. It shows visitors, load times, and referring sites on a minute-by-minute basis. The service also provides alerts the second your website crashes or slows to a crawl.

Every small business owner that is not analytically inclined can appreciate their intuitive, user-friendly interface built with novices in mind. Chartbeat won’t dole out lengthy reports with piles of numbers, instead they are focused on delivering real-time data to the front-line — in the hands of people who can do, who have the power to change and adapt right now.

 

4. CloudFlare

CloudFlare is a content delivery network and distributed domain name server that aims to improve website performance, speed and security. Offering both free and paid services, with a single change to DNS, sites are instantly protected from a wide range of online threats, see an increase in page load speeds, and have their content dynamically optimized across the Internet.

Once your company’s website is a part of the CloudFlare community, its web traffic is routed through their intelligent global network. They then automatically optimize the delivery of your web pages so visitors get the fastest page load times and best performance. Interesting fact: the Turkish government has even used CloudFlare.

 

5. UserTesting.com

With Usertesting.com usability testing has never been easier. UserTesting.com’s online usability testing is the fastest, cheapest way to find out why visitors leave your website. In fact, they can give your small businesses the ability to “look over the shoulder” of your target audience while they use your website. Not to mention the fact that they make it fast, easy, and inexpensive.

 

6. Visual Website Optimizer

Have you been looking for a way to increase your website sales and conversions? If so Visual Website Optimizer, an extremely easy to use A/B testing tool, might be the answer. Using intuitive point and click technology, Visual Website Optimizer lets users create multiple versions of their website in a visual designer, define what actions they want visitors to take, split the website traffic amongst different versions and select the best performing version.

 

7. Crazy Egg

Are you wondering where visitors actually click on your company website? Through Crazy Egg’s heat map and scroll map reports you can get an understanding of how your visitors engage with your website so you can boost conversions and much more. In short, Crazy Egg leverages the power of eye tracking technology and delivers it to small businesses without the high costs.

 

8. Facebook Insights

No small business can ignore the power of social media. Facebook Insights is a powerful tool for those companies that want to track user interaction on their Facebook Fan Page. Not only can Facebook’s free tool help you improve your social media efforts it can also assist small businesses with message and content optimization by helping you understand which content resonates with your audience and optimizing how you publish to them so that people will tell their friends about you.

What web analytics tools do you use most in your small business? Let me know in the comments section below.

 

 

 

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