Paid Web Analytics Tools

• Clicktracks Demo - Hands down my overall favorite. I am definitely an evangelist for their products. Any areas they COULD have been faulted on they have listened to their customers and improved. Not only a good stats package, but a good example of how to run a business.
• Net Tracker - Played with a demo and had a booth next to some of their friendly folks once. Nice product with some handy path analysis. Check out their free lite edition
• Visitorville - I haven’t used this extensively, but you gotta give them credit for a fun interface

Free Web Traffic Tools

• Webalizer About as basic as it gets, but very free and easy to use
• Analog Stats Again very basic but free and easy to use.
• Relax - quality referral tracking.

Critical aspects to consider when purchasing Web Analytics Software

Speed of reporting If I have to wait 5 minutes (or even 2 minutes) for my report it is too long. Initial parsing time is fine, but keep it snappy. Most times, statistical data is needed to backup a brainstorm. Waiting is not very conducive to good creative thinking.

Breadth and depth of reporting - Make it scalable but not overwhelming You don’t need to know that record cleaning fluid doesn’t sell to Poland on Canadian leap year if you’re a record shop in NYC. You definitely CAN go overkill with setting up your stats packages. Try to start with a scalable product that will cover lots of areas of your statistical needs. Focus on the statistics that will HELP YOU TO IMPROVE ROI. Try to break out each area of your marketing campaigns when possible to get the best and most accurate return on ad spend for each.

Accuracy of reporting Does the package track visits from your company netowork’s IP address (where everyone’s default start page is your homepage)? How does it determine “unique visitors”? Does it count search spiders and bots as visitors? Every stats package handles things differently, so if you change packages it is important to understand the data interpretation discrepencies, otherwise you might have BIG trouble when going to interpret the data to your BOSS (of course you could look like the HERO if you do it the right way).

Ease of use - Keep the learning curve low Many people may potentially have to use the program. Probably at least several people should. They all need to know how to use and interpret the data. When a program is difficult to use, or difficult to remember it is very frustrating and counterproductive. You have 73 other things to do, pick a package that is going to make your life quicker and easier.

Know what you need Your website technology architecture will play a role in which package you pick. I like LAMP myself because it’s less expensive and reliable. Linux/Apache/MySQL/Pearl - PHP - Python. Find out your web platform and how compatible all your elements are. Strategically reducing retrofittings saves lives.