Why do you have to go and make things so complicated? A look at Piwik vs. Google Analytics

Avril Lavigne’s iconic song ‘Complicated’ focuses on the frustration we frequently have with anything that is more challenging than necessary. For example, the system to check my gym schedule and payments is so anger inducing I’m often reduced to bouts of obscenities directed at the site.

Google Images

(I suppose I could also apply the line ‘chill out, what you yellin’ for?’ given my short temper)

Regardless of the frustration, we want things to be as simple as possible. Not that we can’t appreciate the complex; more that we want to invest our time wisely and not be overwhelmed resulting in more time wasting when trying to perform basic tasks, like checking our web metrics.

After using Google Analytics for a few weeks and watching a few tutorials, I still find it rather confusing. I stare at the screen, and know what I’m looking with, yet I have no idea how to find the source of information. To make matters worse (*probably better if you know what you’re doing), each metric breaks down into inception style more specific metrics. Metrics within metrics.

Luckily, I realized I’m not alone. 

When researching alternatives to GA, I found multiple sites that listed several drawbacks of GA, including its complicated nature. Sure, there are a crazy amount of features, but it’s not something you can jump into and learn in a day (ImImpact, 2014). Other reasons to stray is for different measurements that may assist your business better given what another tool can measure (Hines, 2014).

A resounding agreement across the Internet seems to be if you want to track web traffic, if nothing else use GA (ImImpact, 2014).

Google Analytics isn’t perfect but if you’re unhappy in your relationship, there are other programs in the sea.

This post is going to discuss a popular alternative called Piwik. Mostly because it came up in a few search results and I like the name.

Found in more than 150 countries, Piwik leads open source analytics with more than 1,000,000 million sites using the tool (Piwik History, 2014). At the time of this post, it’s been downloaded 2,109,716 times (Piwik, 2014). Launched in 2007, Piwik began receiving recognition within two years in the form of an award for the best open source enterprise software.

In 2010, the first app was launched, a feature not found with GA. The four years since have seen international expansion, the Prop section of the company and 50 different translations (Piwik History, 2014).

According to Piwik, the tool is ‘liberating web analytics.’ As an open source platform, it is leading in its field and providing insights that are valuable to the success of online efforts (2014). It specializes in allowing users to own their data and puts privacy as a top concern.

Piwik’s website also describes how it is different from the Google Analytics:

“One of the principle advantages of Piwik is that you are in control. Unlike remote-hosted services (such as Google Analytics), you host Piwik on your own server and the data is tracked inside your Mysql database. Because Piwik is installed on your server, you enjoy full control over your data. You can access the data easily via the Piwik APIs. Advanced users can use Custom Variables, Segmentation, or even run manual queries on the database in order to build advanced reports.

Piwik also protects your visitor privacy with advanced Privacy features. When using Piwik for Web Analytics, you ensure that your visitors behavior on your website(s) is not shared with advertising companies” (New to Piwik).

Let’s dissect this a little.

Open source analytics differ from Google Analytics because they give the user control over the data. From all the open source options, Piwik rivals GA the most in terms of available functions (Nesbitt, 2014). A potential downside to Piwik is the fact that users need a host, which can be intimidating. If you have a website, everything is almost in place anyway making this barrier minimal and the rest of the installation process simple (Speyer, 2012).

A major selling point of the platform centers around its privacy features. Right now, Google is surrounded by Internet users with privacy concerns and discomfort about what is done with the information it tracks. With Piwik, these concerns are eliminated because all the data belongs to the person doing it and is used for whatever that person wants. Only with permission is the data shared with third parties (White, 2014).

Piwik is also incredibly customizable, trying to make your life a little less complicated. The tool works with more than 65 different platforms, including Wordpress, Joomla! and Magneto through plug ins to keep all you need in one place (Nesbitt, 2014).

Customization is the driving force behind Piwik. Users can rearrange the interface (via widgets) that allow them to see only what they want and include the most relevant stats in the most convenient place. The entire theme can be designed to fit individual needs with the ability to design specific plugins (White, 2014).

In fact, you can edit the open source tool right down to its core (White, 2014).

Like other services, Piwik offers the standard real time analytics, goals, referrals, JavaScript API, campaign tracking and visitor maps (White, 2014). Unique features to the site including tracking outbound links, file downloads, cart abandonment, a mobile app and Professional Services team to customize your plan (Speyer, 2012).

As a free tool, Piwik offers many useful tracking tools, although in some areas (like visit lengths and bounce tracking), it is lacking (ImImpact, 2014). A premium plan is also available starting at $65 per month and offers additional support, training and functionality for those who choose to upgrade (Hines, 2014).

Piwik

At first glance of the demo for Piwik, I’m intrigued and delighted. Everything is right there when you visit the Dashboard and the drag and drop customization feature makes it ideal for anyone trying to organize it by the most relevant data. I think the tabs at the top directing users to visitors, actions, goals, etc., is better than the menu on the side in GA.

Based on everything I read, Piwik is a decent alternative to GA, especially if you get caught up in all the data available to you. The layout is what sells me for future reference if I ever need to track a site. It appears easier to manage and less intimidating. The idea of needing a host would create a small amount of annoyance at the beginning, but I think it would be worth figuring it out.

Google Analytics, you made things too complicated and I’m now I’m trying to hang out with your more aesthetically pleasing friend.

References

Hines, K. (2014). 15 Google Analytics alternatives. iAcquire. Retrieved from http://www.iacquire.com/blog/15-google-analytics-alternatives

ImImpact. (2014). Web stats: Alternatives to Google Analytics. Retrieved from http://imimpact.com/web-stats-alternatives-to-google-analytics/

Nesbitt, S. (2014). Top 3 open source alternatives to Google Analytics. Opensource.com. Retrieved from http://opensource.com/business/14/10/top-3-open-source-alternatives-google-analytics

New to Piwik. (n.d.). How is Piwik different to Google Analytics and other web analytics tools. Piwik. Retrieved from http://piwik.org/faq/new-to-piwik/faq_15/

Piwik. (2014). Learn more. Retrieved from http://piwik.org

Piwik History. (2014). Piwik open analytics platform. Retrieved from http://piwik.org/history/

Speyer, A. (2012). Some reasons to choose Piwik analytics over Google Analytics. Stat Story. Retrieved from http://www.statstory.com/some-reasons-to-choose-piwik-analytics-over-google-analytics/

White, L. (2014). A closer look at Piwik: A Google Analytics alternative. Site Point. Retrieved from http://www.sitepoint.com/closer-look-piwik-google-analytics-alternative/

Choosing social media is daunting, nerve wracking and rewarding

Social media is important. I’m not sure if there’s a more obvious statement out there for those involved with communications. Companies can directly reach consumers and provide direct access for consumers to the companies.

In 2014, it’s estimated there will be 1.82 social media users around the world. This is almost double the total amount from four years ago (Statista, 2014).  A study done by IBM reports social media will become the most important channel used to engage with its various publics in three to five years. Last year, only 16 percent used it as a primary method, but within the aforementioned time frame it will increase to 57 percent (Sass, 2013).

This will place social media in front of call centers, websites and traditional media (Sass, 2013). With more than a third of the world’s population using social media (with numbers continually increasing), your company needs to be there, too. Where the people are.

This is obvious enough. Few will argue the importance of social media for most businesses, but selecting where to be proves the more difficult challenge.

A good social media strategy can boost business, but not every platform is where you need to be. To find out where to go, you need to look at the demographics of your desired audience and determine what is the site they frequent most. Next, you need to determine how you want to reach them. Is it through blog posts? Videos? These considerations help you narrow down where to focus your plan (Levy, 2013).

Another consideration? Using one channel as the main platform to funnel all relevant content through or using multiple to the same effect.

In my opinion, this is a situation-by-situation decision. What works for one company probably isn’t the same strategy that will work for another. It’s all about the audience and where they are.

If your audience almost primarily uses one site, it might be advisable to focus your efforts where they are. Why waste gour time in an area where research shows your targeted users aren’t?

The flipside of that is every audience is different even if they have similar demographics. There could be value in putting your social toe in the water and seeing if you get any bites in unexpected areas.

If aren’t sure or if you have a smaller staff and can’t maintain multiple presences to the extent they deserve, you can start equally across a few, selected platforms and see where you receive the best response. This can have drawbacks, like stretching a department too thin or not tailoring content enough, which may skew the results.

Let’s examine this using a specific (and fictitious company) with different scenarios. You work for Suburban Filth (brand name from One Tree Hill), a store specializing in grunge and punk clothes serving the misunderstood and emo teens trapped in the suburbs.

Relatively new, Suburban Filth is successful but there’s still room to grow. One of the employees is a public relations major at the local university and volunteered to assist the owners with the social media presence. After completing a SWOT analysis and doing some research on the target audience of females ages 13 to 25 with alternative tastes and interests, she presents three options:

Option 1: Focus the efforts on tumblr, a microblogging site favored by the audience (Gavin). This allows interaction and reblogging with potential customers and places them in a unique platform.

Option 2: Establish a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and tumblr. Monitor where the most response is received after a few months and narrow down the efforts to one primary site.

Option 3: Commit to a strategy that leverages Facebook, Twitter and tumblr in an equal manner and reaches a larger audience

The nuances in social media can make or break what you’re trying to accomplish as a company or organization. It’s important to carefully consider the best option before haphazardly creating sites and expecting results.

Another important consideration when choosing a strategy is content. Content drives social media strategy and without it you cannot expect results (Greenberg, 2009). Conversation is the point of social media, to reach your audience and have them respond to you – provide feedback, insight, opinion, etc. Without conversation, your other efforts are worthless (Novak, 2010).

In his book Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky used this phrase to describe content and conversation:  

“Conversation is King, content is just something to talk about.” (Novak, 2010).

Let’s dissect that. Content is something that sparks the conversation. If you don’t have anything compelling, chances are people won’t want to engage. It can’t be said enough. Without content, you have social media accounts no one is interested in liking.

Beyond having content is maintaining the cadence. Once you create a presence, leaving it go for days or weeks at a time can hurt credibility. If you check out a brand’s Facebook page and see it hasn’t had any updates since weeks ago, wouldn’t you be confused or suspicious? If you can’t create enough content, you will never gain the rhythm and it will show to visitors (Greenberg, 2009).

Determining what type of content you intend to produce will help narrow down your social media options.

In an article for Inc., Michelle Manafy uses a great analogy about selecting where to invest your time on social media. Like mothers tell you when you’re growing up, be careful how you choose your friends. Rather than follow the latest trends trying to be popular, choose the group that best fits who your organization is. It’s part of the process of growing up – we learn where we should be instead of trying to be someone we’re not (Manafy, 2014).

Manafy continues to describe the benefits of the different platforms:

Facebook

Facebook is most frequently used and most populated social media site. There is a drop off with younger audiences, but more than 70 percent of adults use Facebook regularly. The downside is how people use it to connect with family and friends. You can reach a broad network, but it’s not always the most effective for business (Manafy, 2014).

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the professional network, where users go to bond with like minded professionals and expand their connection base. With the right message, it’s worth using considering the industry-specific information and higher education levels of users (Manafy, 2014).

Pinterest

If you can use images to engage with your audience and you want to target women, Pinterest is an excellent option. Even if you have to be creative with your images, it might be worth pursuing (Manafy, 2014).

Twitter

Twitter is most effective when engagement and response is at the forefront of the strategy. Younger men and women flock to the microblogging site for the rapid and large amount of timely information as well as specific accounts dedicated to an incredible variety of topics and specialties (Manafy, 2014).

Instagram

Again with the visual appeals and Twitter tie ins, Instagram has its perks especially with urbanites and specific ethnic markets (Manafy, 2014).

This isn’t a comprehensive list. Social media platforms continue to burst on the scene and take hold of different segments. It’s important to monitor the different sites to see if they have any longevity and will work well with your what your organization is trying to do online.

In conclusion…

Talk about a loaded topic! The most important thing to remember is do not decide one day to enter the world of social media and create the accounts in the same moment. There are a lot of variables, like whether you want a primary site or the strategy to spread across multiple platforms. Next, how do you choose where to place your efforts? You can follow your audience or choose based on the type of content you intend to create. Finally, and most importantly, you need great and engaging to create conversation, the most important part of social media.

References

Gavin. (2014). Tumblr favored over Facebook for 13 to 25 year olds. United Methodist Communications. Retrieved from http://www.umcom.org/learn/tumblr-favored-over-facebook-for-13-to-25-year-olds

Greenberg, M. (2009). Content is king of social marketing. Multichannel Merchant.

Levy, S. (2013). How to choose the best social media platform for your business. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230020

Manafy, M. (2014). How to choose the best social media site for your business. Inc. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/michelle-manafy/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-sites-to-market-your-business.html

Novak, C. (2010). Why conversation, not content, is key. Social Media Today.

Sass, E. (2013). Social media will be primary channel for engaging customers, CEOs predict. MediaPost. Retrieved from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/191175/social-media-will-be-primary-channel-for-engaging.html

Statista. (2014). Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2017 (in billions). Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

We want converts and we want them now

Merriam-Webster defines conversion as the act of changing from one state to another, the process of changing from one belief to another or as an extra two points you can get in football after a touchdown (2014).

For our purposes, let’s focus on the middle definition (although two point conversions are pretty cool).

Now, I’m not referring to the type of conversion that happens when you see the light (although again, this is cool too). Conversion in relation to web analytics is basically the ultimate prize, what all our efforts are supposed to cause.

Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 and man I will probably reference throughout the course of these posts, says it best by “we are investing in our websites, so we should measure what comes of them” (2010, p. 55).

To put it simply, conversion “the number of times a desired outcome was accomplished” (Tiebohl, 2014).

Conversions are the result of the hard work behind the scenes to optimize the website. To measure, you take the outcomes divided by visits or unique visitors. There is some debate between visits and unique visitors in determining the most important number for the denominator of your equation. At the end of the day, it’s based on individual business goals and whether the unique sessions or unique browsers are more important (Kaushik, 2010, p. 55).

Two of the most common examples of conversions to study are purchases and email newsletter sign ups (Google, 2014). If you’re an e-commerce site, you ultimately want visitors to buy something sold on one of the pages. If you’re an advocacy group or blogger, you want to see people opting in to your electronic mailings.

For me, conversions are all about clients. How many of our visitors do we end up representing? How many submit an inquiry form? Our law firm runs off our clients, so our site needs to connect people to attorneys. My job literally depends on the success of our conversions.

When an inquiry is received, we have access to it in the marketing department. We can see the issue the potential client is having and where they came from on our site (the contact form is conveniently located EVERYWHERE). While they may not become clients, it’s the first step in determining our conversion effectiveness.

Recently, our firm is attempting to begin slowly branching out to include more types of personal injury law, including car accidents. Realizing we weren’t receiving any traffic or inquiries from these pages, we beefed them up a bit. By adding additional content about major fatal auto accident areas with a tie to all the GM recall drama, we’ve seen increased numbers. Today we even received one from the GM page, asking about a possible claim related to the recall (My stories found love!).

Before I entered the professional workforce, I spent my days as a head cashier at Sears, leading the way for a new era of the unfortunate retailer. One of Sears’ goals is to become the world’s greatest integrated retailer. The company streamlined the checkout process and encouraged sales online through store computers. I will say, despite Sears’ flaws, the check out process was fairly efficient.

In this role, it was about converting shoppers to purchasers. So much of Sears’ efforts went online to attract new audiences and exist in a different, less traditional environment for the storied brand. Like Amazon, a marketplace feature is available, selling goods from all over the internet.

Increasing Ecommerce conversions allows Sears to see the effectiveness of the drive to online engagement and shopping.

Foundational metrics serve as the starting point – making sure people are viewing your site and finding something worthwhile. Conversion rates are the end of the game, turning visitors to consumers or interested parties engaged in your company.

Online efforts without measuring conversion is like studying very hard for a final and never knowing if you passed. It’s the conclusion to your hard work, where you can see what went well and learn for the next time where you can improve.

References

Google. (2014). Conversion overview. Google analytics. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1006230?hl=en

Kaushik, A. (2010). Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability and science of customer centricity. Chapter 3, pp. 55. Wiley Publishing: Indiana.

Merriam-Webster. (2014). Conversion. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conversion

Tiebohl, M. (2014). Lesson 2: Basic web analytics, IMC 642. WVU IMC. Retrieved from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FdisplayLearningUnit%3Fcourse_id%3D_20666_1%26content_id%3D_1178118_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue

The foundation of foundational analytics

Before more complex analytics are used to break down the different types of pages, visit lengths and referrers, there are foundational analytics (Moore, 2014).  They are the core of web analytics and what began it all (Kaushik, 2010, p. 36). Foundational metrics can be broken down into the following categories:

• ·         Page views
• ·         Visits or sessions
• ·         Unique visitors
• ·          (Tiebohl, 2014)

Page views

Google defines a page view as “an instance of a page being loaded by a browser” (Google, 2014). The metric shows the number of viewed pages, with repeated views included.  By showing how many pages are viewed by site visitors, you can determine where they’re going and the most popular destinations.

Visits/sessions

Visits are the number of times your site received visitors without paying attention to repeated visitors (Spork Marketing).  This count is one of the most basic and important pieces of information to measure (Tendenci).

The experience of the visitor spending time on your site is called a session, according to Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 (2010, p. 38). A visit or session begins with the very first request and ends with the last.

Unique Visitors

Page views measure the number of requests a site receives, but unique visitors take it a step further. These metrics determine how many unique visitors came back to the site during a selected period of time (Beal). When someone visits your site, a unique string of characters and numbers are assigned called a cookie ID. No personal information is included, but every time the visitor returns, this cookie ID recognizes them and logs their activity (Kaushik, 2010, p. 28).

As a web metrics amateur, I’m still learning and part of that is using Facebook Insights more and trying to decipher information I typically ignore. I’m the administrator for two Pages. Granted, these are small scale analytics intended to be helpful to the average Joe with no experience (at least I assume considering I understand a lot of what I read).

One feature is tab views. Facebook offers many enagement stats, but they also show how many people view a tab on Facebook on a given day. At first, I thought this was a silly thing to monitor (considering it also tells me how many times I view the Insights tab), but it’s useful to figure out what is pulling them to look at our Page.

For example, if I have more views of the Timeline when I’m posting about an upcoming event, this could represent people seeking out the information about that particular happening. If I receive a lot of Photo tab views after posting a new album, it may help me to see if people are looking at pictures and finding value.

At my job, unique visitors can prove extremely helpful. My law firm specializes in personal injury. Right now, the GM recall is a pretty big deal and more than two million owners want answers. As the marketing coordinator, I’ve written around 15 stories outlining the initial breaking of the recall to the announcement of the compensation fund and growing death tolls.

Surprisingly, I don’t write these for my own enjoyment.

The unique cookie ID assigned to visitors could help me determine if people found my stories and the updated information useful and returned for more as the recall unfolded. If we checked the unique visitors from March to September (when most of the stories were written), we could see the value people found based on how often they returned.

Page views are essential for the firm as well. When people come to our site, where are they going? What do they find interesting? This, combined with the session mapping out the navigation path, can show what visitors find most valuable on our site and what our audience is looking for, enabling us to improve high-trafficked pages.

The three foundational metrics provide the base of information needed to begin examining online efforts. More complex metrics obviously exist, but you need the basics to at least tell you how many are coming to see what you have to offer.

References

Beal, V. (n.d.). Unique visitor. Webopedia. Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/unique_visitor.html

Google. (2014). Pageviews. Analytics. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1006243?hl=en

Kaushik, A. (2010). Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability and science of customer centricity. Chapter 3, pp. 36 &38. Wiley Publishing: Indiana.

Moore, C. (2014). Big data and analytics- five foundational elements. Sirius Decisions. Retrieved from https://www.siriusdecisions.com/Blog/2014/Mar/Big-Data-and-Analytics-Five-Foundational-Elements.aspx

Spork Marketing, LLC. (n.d.). What visits, visitors and page views? Google analytics for beginners. Retrieved from http://sporkmarketing.com/376/what-are-visitors-unique-visitors-and-page-views-google-analytics/

Tendenci. (n.d.). Meaning of hits , visits, page views and traffic sources: Web analytics definitions. Retrieved from https://www.tendenci.com/help-files/meaning-of-hits-visits-page-views-and-traffic-sources-web-analytics-definitions/

Tiebohl, M. (2014). Lesson 2: Basic web analytics, IMC 642. WVU IMC. Retrieved from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FdisplayLearningUnit%3Fcourse_id%3D_20666_1%26content_id%3D_1178118_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue