Google Offers Free Web Analytics
Raise your hand if you remember an analytics company by the name of Urchin? "Memmer?... You memmer!" They're the company that hides the "Easter-Egg" in your badge at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and when you present them with it at their booth they give you a free shirt. "Memmer?... You memmer!" Well, back in March of this year, Google acquired the San Diego-based Urchin, slapped the Google logo on it, renamed it to Google Analytics, reduced the price from $495 a month to $199 a month and continued to hammer out the popular analytics service.
This past week, Google took another step forward in the website statistics / analytics direction and launched a free version of their Web analytics service, one that will let companies see exactly how visitors interact with their website and how their advertising campaigns are faring. In fact, Google Analytics will allow website owners the ability to see exactly where visitors are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multi-step checkout processes. A truly amazing package if I don't say so myself and best yet... it's free!
To top it off, Google Analytics will be integrated with Google AdWords and will offer a new interface within existing AdWords accounts. Google Analytics will include a feature that automatically imports the cost data for return on investment (ROI) reports into the Google Analytics program so advertisers can see how much they're paying for keywords compared with how much money they're making off them. In addition, Online Marketers will be able to use the service to track banner, e-mail, non-paid, and paid search advertising campaigns from other ad service providers.
I have not yet had a chance to play around with the new Google Analytics program, but I'm betting that it's going to be a remarkable product. I feel comfortable saying so because it's Google who is putting it out there and as we all know anything that Google touches turns to both Gold and Greatness, similar to what happened King Midas in his fiction story. Heck I bet that Google's personnel could take turns crapping in a box, label it Google, and it too would fly off the shelf of your local retail store. Ok... maybe that was pushing it, but my point is that Google is vastly becoming a true trustworthy household name and for good reason... they strive for and achieve greatness on each of their business ventures. I see this venture as being no different.
In my opinion, Google made all the right moves at all the right times. They purchased a great product at the beginning of the year and are now using it to their advantage. Not only are they offering the service for free, but they are literally putting the squeeze on companies like Web Trends, Web Side Story, KeywordMax, and Click Tracks whom all seem to focus on the small to medium-size business market. It should be interesting to see what those companies are bound to come up with in order to compete with Google Analytics.
Click here to check out Google Analytics.
This past week, Google took another step forward in the website statistics / analytics direction and launched a free version of their Web analytics service, one that will let companies see exactly how visitors interact with their website and how their advertising campaigns are faring. In fact, Google Analytics will allow website owners the ability to see exactly where visitors are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multi-step checkout processes. A truly amazing package if I don't say so myself and best yet... it's free!
To top it off, Google Analytics will be integrated with Google AdWords and will offer a new interface within existing AdWords accounts. Google Analytics will include a feature that automatically imports the cost data for return on investment (ROI) reports into the Google Analytics program so advertisers can see how much they're paying for keywords compared with how much money they're making off them. In addition, Online Marketers will be able to use the service to track banner, e-mail, non-paid, and paid search advertising campaigns from other ad service providers.
I have not yet had a chance to play around with the new Google Analytics program, but I'm betting that it's going to be a remarkable product. I feel comfortable saying so because it's Google who is putting it out there and as we all know anything that Google touches turns to both Gold and Greatness, similar to what happened King Midas in his fiction story. Heck I bet that Google's personnel could take turns crapping in a box, label it Google, and it too would fly off the shelf of your local retail store. Ok... maybe that was pushing it, but my point is that Google is vastly becoming a true trustworthy household name and for good reason... they strive for and achieve greatness on each of their business ventures. I see this venture as being no different.
In my opinion, Google made all the right moves at all the right times. They purchased a great product at the beginning of the year and are now using it to their advantage. Not only are they offering the service for free, but they are literally putting the squeeze on companies like Web Trends, Web Side Story, KeywordMax, and Click Tracks whom all seem to focus on the small to medium-size business market. It should be interesting to see what those companies are bound to come up with in order to compete with Google Analytics.
Click here to check out Google Analytics.
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posted by Karl Ribas Friday, November 18, 2005 Read Comments (0) | Post a Comment | Subscribe  
 
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