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Google Analytics

Written by: Mark Brimm

Article Overview: A growing number of SMBs with a web presence are discovering the simple joys of Google Analytics. It's true that so many software brands exist now that can blow whistles and ring bells that outstrip the Google feeling, but how effective is the bang-for-buck of the high-priced analytics solution for the average startup site?

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Google Analytics

I came. I saw the flashing lights. I was hooked.

I like them all. The expensive programs and memberships. Click-through "heat maps". How is a boy to contain his glee with all the hyper-real analytical motion and fashionably business-like bleeps going on? Trouble is, for most startups such paid analtical solutions are prohibitively too expensive if there is no one on staff available with the dedicated time to learn how to use one of them--which is most every business owner and marketing department director out there today, with some happy exceptions.

What Google Analytics brings to the table is a hefty serving of what analytics can be most readily used for and a good bit of muscle to boot. They just don't put it into the form of an interactive city or with infrared click-map precision, but with adequate precision for most web-newbie businesses, nonetheless.

If your company is toying with the idea of analytics solutions that come in a box and require memberships and even licensing fees, be sure to get your feet wet with Google Analytics first. It's (trumpets here)...FREE! It gives a rapidly expanding array of metrics, funnel goals and statistics and will prepare you for the real world of high-priced solutions that may otherwise prove unweildy and slow to pay off if you're "fresh off the analytics boat," as no one has ever said until just now.

When you are ready to take the jump, however, compare based on some basic guidelines:

1) Can this solution help us to cover everything we're able and ready to measure?
2) Is this solution too expensive for the ease factor it lends to web analytics tracking?
3) Will someone on staff be available to evolve with this solution as it changes over time?

Compare and try out as many solutions as possible when you're ready to graduate from Google Analytics, but don't expect it to get easy. People have devoted their entire lives to learning how to measure and predict traffic, and buying a packaged software solution is not going to flatten out the learning curve. There are options, however, that come with educating oneself. For one thing, you'll be able to effectively screen and hire a qualified consultant for the task if you roughly understand the tool to be used. Eventually, you may want to offer to either hire the person on, have them train that person for a generous fee, and just continue to outsource it. Hey, if you understand what they're doing and the benefit of doing it, it's fine to keep it outsourced indefinitely. In a pinch, you'll understand how to take over the task if needed. The important thing is to start your journey, Skywalker. It's one thing to know the path. It's quite another to walk the path.

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Home > SEO > Mark Brimm > Google Analytics
Article Tags: google analytics, smbs, web presence

About the Author: Mark Brimm
RSS for Mark's articles - Visit Mark's website

Mark Brimm is founder and Director of Digital Marketing, co-proprietor, and lead consultant at Interface Communications Group (www.123interFACE.com, www.InterfacePR.com), an internet marketing company based in the Houston, TX area. Mark is also co-author of AdWords University: The COmplete Guide to AdWords. Mark has been consulting companies ranging from Fortune 5's to SMBs for over 15 years in the areas of Web Branding, Web Marketing Plans, Web Advertising, Web Publicity Campaigns, and Web Startup Consulting in addition to Search Engine Marketing, with scores of articles in circulation to his credit around the web. Interface considers new clients based upon the merit of the project and free available time. Join his SEMinsider newsletter at http://123interface.com/newsletter.htm for all the best SEO and SEM tips, as well as valuable Web Marketing deals from partnering sites, just for being a member.

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