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This question has been submitted by a reader through Skribit. I would like to thank the author to start up the process! As I said in a previous post, your questions may be submitted anonymously and very easily. Don’t hesitate to submit them; this helps me to treat about topics that are very targeted and relevant for you. There is no wrong or stupid question! I’ll always take some time to answer them.

Now let’s answer the question!

There is plenty of analytics system on the online market. Some are free, some cost money. Some give you real time data while others don’t. Some are scripts that you host on your server while others are hosted by a company. Which one should you choose as a new blogger? I personally think that the choice is quite simple and won’t surprise anyone: Google Analytics.

This choice is based on solid reasons. Here the list:

1. Feature rich.

Google Analytics has plenty of great features. There are many features you won’t use at the beginning of your experience. However, they will be available when you’ll need it. The default features are far enough for a new blogger.

2. Easy to setup.

Google Analytics is very simple to install. In fact, it is as simple as a copy/paste. You just need to insert the code in every page and that’s it! If you are using Wordpress as your blog CMS, you’ll just need to insert the code on the footer.php file.

3. Friendly interface.

Google Analytics has a very intuitive interface. Moreover, I personally like it because it is very clear and clean. The dashboard gives you a global image of your blog indicators. Then you can analyze some aspects more in details. Every page is very well organized!

4. Well documented.

Every service launch by Google is well documented. Google Analytics is not an exception. In fact, a very descriptive help center is available to answer any of your questions about the Analytics service. In addition, you will find plenty of excellent articles and forums that talk about Google Analytics. You won’t be out of resources!

5. May be combined with other Google services.

Just as an example, Google Analytics may be combined to Google Adwords to track your Adwords campaigns. This may be very useful to build an efficient marketing strategy.

You want to give Google Analytics a try? Here is the Google Analytics Installation Guide!

Now, for those of you whoare visual, here is an interesting video:

Of course, there is many other analytics systems. For example, I may have written about Sitemeter, which is also great. However, I think that Google Analytics is the best choice to begin. Finally, the best thing will always be to experiment! This is an absolute law. Reading helps you to learn while experimenting helps you to understand!

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 5:54 am and is filed under Reader Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.