Web Tracking Software Packages

[dharrison]

Hi all

At present, I am going through the Web CEO course. I am on the section where they take you through analysing their HitLens web tracking software/service.

My question is: does anybody know of similar software out there that tracks visitor activity from entrance to exit of site in the same way as HitLens?

This is so I can research and prepare for when I launch my more specialised SEM service later on this year.

Any help will be gratefully received.

Many thanks and best regards,

[MrLeN]

I don't know what HitLens is, but I do know about eXTReMe Tracking. They have just updated their service so that you can track multiple pages with the same code.

Now I've been through the tracking mill, and good tracking can be HARD to come by. But Extreme Tracking wins my vote -- absolutely, positively and unequivocally HANDS DOWN!

Forget ALL tracking and head here:

http://www.extremetracking.com

This is THE most useful tracking online.

MrLeN

P.S. I know that other people might see this thread and think: "Ah, eXTReMe tracking isn't so good". But go back and have a look. This tracking is the bees knees.

P.P.S. You can only get the multiple page tracking if you pay, but don't worry, it's cheap as chips.

[kservik]

You cant get any better analytics software at the price you can get Google Analytics.

It used to cost $499 just a few months ago, before Google started giving it away. You cant sign up yourself now, but I am sure it is possible to get a profile set up at someone else that has got it.

[CharlesZ]

Hm. Google analytics isn't quite available though. If it's just for the class, download clicktracks (www.clicktracks.com), use the demo and be done with it. Careful though... I loved it and upgraded.

-Charles

[Meridian]

The Web tracking apps the previous posts have referred to, among others, excel at managing patterns of traffic, or site Visitors in bulk.

An alternative application is VisitorTrack.

This web tracking approach is wholly oriented to providing detail on individual business Visitors to a site, all from a lead generation/sales point of view. This data is automatically captured without any registration process for each business Visitor.

The kinds of information VisitorTrack provides includes company names, search terms, search engine, return visit, address, phone, website, the landing page they hit, the target executives and contacts, SIC codes. There's also much more available.

Unlike other applications providing a high level "aerial" view of a website's traffic, VisitorTrack puts you right into the individual "cars". Thus, it is oriented to marketing and sales users as a source for internet leads vs. overall site traffic management.


C Jeffers
http://www.netFactor.com
http://www.Website-Leads.com

[garris]

I tried several tracking programs last year, but ran into a problem with tracking through a 3rd party shopping cart that we use.
Some, like trackingroi.com would not only tell you about the clicks, but were also supposed to show you which keywords from which PPC actually paid off, and the amount of the sale. This was great, cause you could see which keywords and which PPC engines were actually paying for themselves. A ton of clicks are useless, even debillating if they don't come from a market that actually buys.

But the problem was that it didn't carry through like it was supposed to when filtered through the shopping cart. The results were skewered for some reason, even though they said it shouldn't have been.

I am loathe to give up my shopping cart company. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[ronparrs]

I've been using NetWork Solutions Super Stats for several years. It gives me what I'm looking for: how someone found our sites ( www.parpools.com & www.cheaphottubchemicals.com ), which OS they're using, language, IP address, resolution, browser & a couple other things. I'm going to be upgrading in the next month to find out more such as entry page & path & a bit more info that is will be useful to me.

The amount of gleaning of keywords and more that is now available to me is GREAT! Cost is reasonable.

It's also easy to use.

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by ronparrs

I've been using NetWork Solutions Super Stats for several years. It gives me what I'm looking for: how someone found our sites ( www.parpools.com & www.cheaphottubchemicals.com ), which OS they're using, language, IP address, resolution, browser & a couple other things. I'm going to be upgrading in the next month to find out more such as entry page & path & a bit more info that is will be useful to me.

The amount of gleaning of keywords and more that is now available to me is GREAT! Cost is reasonable.

It's also easy to use.

Awstats does all that and more and it comes free with most hosting packages. When I approach a host the first question I ask is "does Awstats come with it".

Garris....I found I had a similar problem, sorry, I don't have a solution but would be interested if someone could find one.

This is an interesting subject..... as it becomes harder and more expensive to grow your website professional tracking becomes a necessary part of the process.

I have a membership site so I only need to find where and how the visitor came to the home page.

It's getting imperative that I find a good package that works as PPC is getting very expensive and I need to narrow down the terms I am using.

The trick is to find which terms bring the tyre kickers and which bring the converting traffic.
I have an idea which is which but that's not good enough, I need to see the proof.

[espectations]

Believe it or not but some companies here in South Africa still do not offer stats.

The one company that I deal with makes the server logs available though.

So if anybody knows of software that I could use to interpret these logs it will be high appreciated.

I am also checking out the URL's mentioned on this site.

[dharrison]

Originally Posted by garris

I am loathe to give up my shopping cart company. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Why don't you have a look in the e-commerce section of this forum? One of the Sticky threads, has a list of recommended Shopping Carts

HTH

[JuniorOnline]

Originally Posted by dharrison

Hi all

At present, I am going through the Web CEO course. I am on the section where they take you through analysing their HitLens web tracking software/service.

My question is: does anybody know of similar software out there that tracks visitor activity from entrance to exit of site in the same way as HitLens?

This is so I can research and prepare for when I launch my more specialised SEM service later on this year.

Any help will be gratefully received.

Many thanks and best regards,

Hiya,

Do you know if Hitlens can put certain pages together and report on them as a category?

thanks,
T

[dharrison]

Hi T

As far as I know, you can group pages together, for example if you had more than one campaign or sector that you wanted to monitor its progress or ROI.

HTH

BTW maybe I should have been more clear - I am looking at tracking software to monitor individual visitors' activities, not standard web statistics packages (eg not Log Analyser).

Thanx for your replies thus far. There is certainly a lot to chew. ;)

[garris]

Originally Posted by dharrison

Why don't you have a look in the e-commerce section of this forum? One of the Sticky threads, has a list of recommended Shopping Carts

HTH

Thanks, Debbie. Not a bad idea. But I don't think the problem is necessarily the Shopping Cart (I use Cartmanager.net). They offer a spot to enter the tracking code, and it should bring back the correct data. Even the tracking companies (TrackingROI and the others I've used) say that it is sufficient. It's just that the results come back skewered.
I want to know whether the same keyword on two different PPC's will convert the same, not just in the amount of clicks, but how much in sales. Then compare that to the cost of the clicks.
Different PPC's, like Google vs. Overture, appeal to different audiences, which in turn, have different buying habits. Theoretically, you could spend more on one in clicks, but get better sales with the other. That is vital information.
If the Shopping Cart is sending back standard results for both, why can't they disseminate the results correctly? You may be correct that it is a inherent inability of the Cart, but it at least appears that it is the tracking company's algorithms.
(Sigh) Wish it was simple.

[tw]

Interesting thread - I've wanted to add tracking to my setup for a while now and you've all given me some good leads.

Originally Posted by espectations

Believe it or not but some companies here in South Africa still do not offer stats.

The one company that I deal with makes the server logs available though.

So if anybody knows of software that I could use to interpret these logs it will be high appreciated.

I am also checking out the URL's mentioned on this site.

Like a previous poster alluded to, we're talking about two related but slightly different things here. The original poster needs to track individual visitor behavior. AWStats, while very powerful, is good for getting an overview of what's going on. This is what I have implemented.

Espectations, as long as you can access your CGI bin you can set up AWStats on your own. I'll warn you that it can be a bit of a bear of you haven't done it before. But the price (free) is right. You can get more info at http://awstats.sourceforge.net/.

[dharrison]

Originally Posted by garris

Thanks, Debbie. Not a bad idea. But I don't think the problem is necessarily the Shopping Cart (I use Cartmanager.net). They offer a spot to enter the tracking code, and it should bring back the correct data. Even the tracking companies (TrackingROI and the others I've used) say that it is sufficient. It's just that the results come back skewered.
I want to know whether the same keyword on two different PPC's will convert the same, not just in the amount of clicks, but how much in sales. Then compare that to the cost of the clicks.
Different PPC's, like Google vs. Overture, appeal to different audiences, which in turn, have different buying habits. Theoretically, you could spend more on one in clicks, but get better sales with the other. That is vital information.
If the Shopping Cart is sending back standard results for both, why can't they disseminate the results correctly? You may be correct that it is a inherent inability of the Cart, but it at least appears that it is the tracking company's algorithms.
(Sigh) Wish it was simple.

Sorry Garris, I misinterpreted your original post. I thought you were looking for another shopping cart (I thought that was a bit odd).

I cannot speak for the other software packages, as I will look at each one in further detail tomorrow, but I can say that Hitlens can track information such as CPC or search engine and which keywords/phrases are attracting the msot visitors.

This does also track your ROI and can be used on both static and dynamic pages.

HTH.

I'm quite glad for this new section of the forum. As I am currently studying Web Analytics on Web CEO diploma this is right up my street.

[garris]

I downloaded WebCEO last year and toyed with it here and there. I wasn't sure if it was as good as they thought it was.

I've wasted plenty of money on SEO programs and programmers, so perhaps I'm a bit skittish, but I couldn't see what WebCEO offered that was really unique.

What's your input? Does it offer something that you would be hard-pressed to get for yourself?

I hate to be a cranky ol' naysayer, but it comes free with age.

Dale

[dharrison]

Well anythings gotta be better than dealing with raw server logs and "grep" command in MSDOS. Don't you agree?

I was studying today and if for example you have a number of campaigns set up and you need a fixed monthly budget to work with, Hitlens can calculate what that budget should be and then as you cannot change it afterwards, helps you stick to it.

Yeah surely this can all be done by yourself, but it may take a lot of time. I wouldn't say I am Web CEO's b***h my any means (hence the purpose of this thread), but it certainly has some powerful features.

HTH

[Cyclops]

Slightly off topic (sorry) but I am surprised at the prices being asked for tracking software.

Most of the ones I have researched come with less features than Awstats.

One example (and their are others similar) is Hypertracker that charges 19.95 per month. You buy that package and find just enough to whet your appitite then find for the proper package it will cost $1750 per month.

A simple and cheap solution is to use an affiliate program for tracking. It works excellently for PPC. You just assign an affiliate code to each term or group of terms and from that you find which terms are converting and which are not.

[dharrison]

I'm suprised at the 2nd price you gave Cyclops. **Pushes heart back down into chest**

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by dharrison

I'm suprised at the 2nd price you gave Cyclops. **Pushes heart back down into chest**

I was surprised as well....they do have another price in the middle somewhere just to confuse us even more.
I deliberately left out the middle price in my previous post hoping someone would jump in telling us of cheaper better alternatives, looks like their are none.....apart from the method I outlined.

I was also looking into email tracking software.....once you go over 10000 emails the price hikes up their as well.

The bottom line is, tracking is expensive yet most of the products I have checked out are no better than Awstats.....which is usually free.