For once, let’s talk about the usual application of the term “web analytics”: the analysis of web site traffic data. If the web site you’re analyzing is your own, and you have access to its traffic data, understanding how your site is used and visited is essential. Since this is turning into a platitude, and the topic is exhaustively documented, here are the two most appealing tool options for this task:
- The newly released Google Analytics, which is the best of the freely available tools. Google Analytics has a lot of depth out of the virtual box. This site is now tracked by Google Analytics
- Analog, which is included by some hosting services, but is the best free choice for those who control their own server and/or have direct access to the server log files. Analog is also more customizable.