Google Analytics

Pros

I LOVE Google Analytics! I've been using it for years, because it's the most detailed, itemized and best broken down traffic tool there is that I could find. I like that it shows you specified things such as the amount of time people are spending on your website and for how long, and which pages. Things like this help me really hone-in on what my potential customer base demographic is, and how to work on triggering and catering to what my industries target markets actually are based on proven statistics.

Cons

I can actually honestly say, that there's nothing bad I can say about Google Analytics. It's my second favorite Google product behind Gmail. The only thing I can really think of if I HAD to say something I like least, would be that it's extremely tough to get a rep on the actual phone (an actual call) to get technical aid.

Pros

Google Analytics gives you everything you need to succeed in your online business, offering comprehensive data to help you understand how users interact with your website. From real-time reporting to custom data sets based on your desired conversions and events, everything is trackable within Google Analytics. To get the most out of the application, I would also recommend getting yourself Analytics certified, using Google's intuitive LMS software.

Cons

There's very little to complain about when it comes to using Google Analytics. If you aren't familiar with the system, it may take you a while to figure where to find the data that you're looking for, but with a little time (and going through the certification process) you can easily transform the way you use data to make decisions for your business.

Pros

I use Google Analytics every week, sometimes every day. It's my tool for monitoring traffic performance on our site. While GA doesn't allow us to examine individual known or tagged user's repeat paths to or through the website, it gives us incredible insight into aggregate visitation and use. We see how many users arrive organically or from referrals; how many arrived from X website vs Y and Z; which landing pages they came in on; which pages they navigated to after that. It's like watching a weather system. While weather systems are a bit more predictable (ha!), the data GA provides is still highly precise in the moment and over time - and it is invaluable. There is so much content available, we can't possibly look at and leverage it all every day.

Cons

While any individual lever is very easy to manipulate, knowing which to pull and when isn't for casual users. You must come in with some digital marketing background, and then you must study the software. Not just in general, in the context of your own website. Which elements you choose to ignore completely, which elements you examine over long vs short term, and which data is actionable - those all come from intimate understanding of your website's performance and purpose. For this reason, there's a bit of a learning curve. A bit of onboarding. Google has automated this process, which means you won't find help from a human when you most need it. I imagine that their high price paid version of the software funds its own support team, but it's a shame there is no intermediate option. Or at least there wasn't when we signed up years ago.

Pros

Google Analytics offers lots of great features that make me choose it over competitive products:
- Easy setup and customization; I have used it with websites rendered on a server and single-page apps
- Ability to observe user behavior in real time
- Web interface has excellent tools for creating custom reports and dashboards
- Native apps let me check on the data when I'm away from my desk -- in fact the mobile app is my favorite way to study the data
- When working with multiple apps, the program does a good job keeping everything organized
- The free quota is very liberal, and this is very helpful and necessary when launching new bootstrapped apps and when funds are limited

Cons

Here are some of my pain points with Google Analytics:

- When I add new projects in the mobile app, I must spend a lot of time to set up the reporting views. The app comes with built-in views, but I prefer my own. I have setup these custom views for other projects before. I wish I could easily clone my previous report view into the new project. If this feature does exist, it is too difficult to find even though I am a frequent user. I would like to see Google implement this feature.

- Sharing reports and views in the GA web application works well between two or more projects that I own; however, sharing dashboard template with team members who are collaborating with you on a project has always been challenging. I have tried a couple of times and so far I have not been able to do this successfully

Pros

Quite simply, this is the complete package:

• In-depth: There are so many options in this, you'd struggle to find something you can't find out! The data kit is really powerful once you've got it set up, and I've used it with several clients to monitor everything from basic views on the page, to the journey across the site and how far they scroll down a specific page.

• Mobile App: For headline stats, I've found this really useful as someone running a small business. You can quickly see on the go if what you've put up has made an impact, and there's still a surprising amount of flexibility and in-sight in a mobile app. If you've got a couple of accounts on the go, you're also able to log into multiple ones at once without faffing around.

• Notes: Recently discovered and a big fan! The ability to make notes natively about spikes or troughs so when you're looking back later is great, so you can make sure you still view stuff in context.

Cons

Generally, I'm pretty impressed with this - the only faff is actually getting it set up in the first place. However, with a couple of tutorials from Google I was able to sort this out myself, so it is do-able!

The only thing I've struggled with is checking outbound clicks - but I'm sure that is something someone who knows what they're doing can sort!