Google Drive, Maps, Webmaster Tools, Gmail and Analytics are just a handful of what the search behemoth offers to public at no charge. What’s not to like?
Well, I tend to subscribe to the old saying that nothing in life is truly free. Although Google Analytics is an enormously powerful analytics package, I find it slow and cumbersome to use at times. And in my opinion, there is a superior option out there: Clicky Analytics.
In this post I want to demonstrate why. If you are an analytics addict like me, read on!
There are affiliate links in this post. If you purchase a product through one of them I will receive a commission. It will cost you nothing extra. I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and tested extensively. Thank you!
One Simple Reason to Use Clicky Analytics
If you’re a sucker for aesthetics then you will not need to be sold on Clicky — it looks awesome:
If you’re intimidated by the sheer amount of data to hand in Google Analytics, Clicky will be seriously refreshing. The interface is clean and uncluttered and contains only the information you are most likely to want to see at a glance.
Clicky has got a lot more going for it than just a pretty exterior though. If you’re anything like me then you tend to check your analytics more than once per day. Quite frankly, doing so in Google is a pain in the ass.
It goes a little something like this — once you’ve logged in you get a list of your sites:
Two clicks later and you get presented with the last 30 days’ analytics for your site of choice:
A few clicks later and you will finally be able to get a look at your stats for the day. If you want to look at another site, you’ll have to go back to the main screen and start the process all over again.
Now compare that with Clicky. This is the screen you get when you log in:
You’re presented with a list of your sites by order of the number of visitors that day with the vital information right in front of you. It’s everything I want, at a glance, presented immediately. If I want to see more I just need to click through.
What I Use Clicky Analytics For
While Google Analytics still has its uses (mainly for split testing), I use Clicky for just about everything relating to my site’s traffic.
Day-to-Day Monitoring
Although it can generally be considered a bad habit to check your analytics more than once per day, I’ve found over time that I just can’t help myself. So rather than fight the habit, I limit the time it takes me by using Clicky. A glance at my analytics will literally take just one click and a few seconds.
Checking Referring Webpages
I always like to keep an eye on what pages across the web are referring traffic to my site so that I can act accordingly.
The main screen for any of your websites on Clicky has a “Links” box that shows you all of the web pages that have referred visitors to any page on your website for the selected period:
From this screen I can see that I’ve been getting some Twitter love as well as some traffic from a recent post I wrote on Bidsketch.
Depending on who is sending me traffic, I might check out the page and leave a comment or email a thank you note to the person responsible for linking to me.
Checking Popular Content
I also like to keep tabs on what content on my site is particularly popular — usually over the period of a few weeks rather than just a day. This is easily done via the “Content” box:
I can typically find out some pretty interesting stuff from this information. For instance, I used the above data recently to discover that one of my older posts was attracting a relatively huge amount of traffic. I did some more digging and found that it was ranking for a high traffic keyword in Google. With that information in hand I optimized the post and was able to increase referrals even further.
By regularly checking on your most popular content you can identify clear trends. For instance, from the above I can also see that:
- Freelance writing posts are amongst the most popular on the site
- Posts that I spend a little time optimizing for SEO attract more visitors
You can use this kind of information to great effect.
What Else Can Clicky Analytics Do?
In short, a lot. Here are some other things I check with Clicky:
- Search terms
- Traffic sources
- Nationality of visitors
Are these things you can’t do with Google Analytics? Nope — but I much prefer using Clicky. It’s quick, clean, uncluttered and intuitive. I’ve been using it for around two years and love it.
To be honest, I’m not hugely technical when it comes to analytics — I tend to stick to the basics. I know that Google has a lot to offer, but to be honest I’ve never looked deeply into its capabilities, nor do I feel compelled to. Clicky offers everything I need
How Much Does It Cost?
Clicky is completely free for one site (up to 3,000 daily page views), so if you only have one site you’re good to go. If you have more then I urge you to give it a go with your main site — I’m confident you won’t regret it! Click here to try out Clicky now.
I’m on the Pro plan which is $79.99 per year (or $9.99 per month) and covers me for ten sites and 30,000 daily page views. That’ll keep me going for quite some time I think! To be honest, for the cost I think it’s a complete no-brainer. I much prefer it to Google Analytics and for the price of a cup of coffee a month, it’s not going to break the bank.
What do you think about Clicky? Have you used it before or are you tempted to give it a test drive having read this post? Let me know in the comments section below!