Website Analytics now on Steroids

By Steph — May 27, 2010
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After spending hours trying to get Google analytics to track a user from first visit to sale, and not ending up with much to show for it other than frustration, we (a co-worker and I) ventured out in search of another solution. I almost signed up for Woopra, but I heard it often slows down site performance significantly. An alternative was suggested: Clicky.

The analytics looked great, and they had a 30-day free trial, so I signed a client up. I spent a large part of the next few days watching the real-time stats, zooming in on Google maps dotted with user IPs, and trying to figure out how Clicky has gone relatively unnoticed for so long (at least by me). Within the week, we slapped down the cash for a paid plan. All $10 of it. Now logging into Google analytics is painful, and I can’t wait to log back out. I’m a very cheap person, so I signed up for the 30 days free for my own sites. But even as cheap as I am, I only lasted a week on the free plan before I wanted to track more sites. However, I paid $60 for the whole year instead of the monthly $10.

My favorite feature of Clicky is the “Spy” page. It’s a world map with a dot for every user currently on your site. It updates in real-time as you watch it. You’ve got to check it out. It lists the pages each user is looking at too, but since this is from a client site, I left out the list of pages. Sorry. My sites don’t get enough traffic.

Beware of setting up the trial, because going back to Google analytics is nearly impossible after the breath of fresh air found in the Clicky tracking. The graphs are a little weak though with limited options, but overall, I’d highly recommend at least checking out the 30-day trial. There’s even a WordPress plugin to make adding the tracking scripts a breeze, and also tracks your commenters by name. I’m smitten.