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For SEO enthusiasts, knowing the statistics of their site is second nature. And to accomplish that, web analytics tools are employed, one of which is phpMyVisites. The name may sound a bit weird, but don’t let that fool you. This software is crammed with features. Downloaded as a zip file, you just extract the files in your web server. Installation is totally automated, and once you are done, a code will be generated which you need to paste in the site you want to track. Once you have pasted the code, the reports will start coming in.

The beauty behind the phpMyVisites is the ease of operation, the depth of the reports, while being free all at the same time. The interface of the site is very simple and easy to understand. It gives you a wealth of information: where the user came from, what OS was he using, what browser was used, among others. The newest feature of phpMyVisites is the ingenious ‘ClickHeat.’ Viewed as an image, it shows you where the clicks on your page are most concentrated. If you are looking for a comprehensive web analytics tool and you don’t want to fork up loads of cash, phpMyVisites may just be the thing for you.

phpMyVisites requires a web server with PHP 4.3 or greater and a MySQL database. Basic knowledge of copy and pasting scripts in HTML and MySQL database details are required.

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Straight out of the hive is 103 Bees, an analytics tool that focuses on organic search engine traffic. This free online application delivers metrics that web masters can use to build traffic from search engines by increasing their rankings and discovering keywords. If you want to learn more about how you can optimize your site for search engines to boost traffic, then using this application will be as sweet as honey.

103 Bees lets you view the latest search terms used to find your site, along with ranking and landing page information for each term. The Related Keywords tool also displays related keywords for each search query, allowing you to broaden your keyword list. Users can also find out the search engines that deliver the most traffic to their sites. 103 Bees also contains colorful graphs that display your search engine traffic metrics visually. One graph helps you differentiate between your most popular keywords and “long tail” keywords. Another graph compares traffic from search engines with traffic from site referrals and paid advertising. All these tools are undeniably useful for SEO planning.

Users need to have minimal knowledge of HTML to paste the JavaScript code on their site. Don’t worry if you’re unsure about where to paste the code - the 103 Bees site contains a short guide on how to do this.

The 103 Bees site runs on most web browsers and their analytics service is free for sites that have less than 100,000 visitors per month.

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MyBlogLog has two important functions. It shows basic traffic statistics and lets your blog visitors interact with each other on a more personal level. The traffic statistics feature has a free 3-day trial per site, but the other MyBlogLog features are free to use

When you register for an account, you can create a profile that displays your contact info, interests, and web sites. You can control whether this information is private, public, or visible only to your contacts. MyBlogLog also features member communities for each blog. Using the MyBlogLog site and joining the many featured communities is easy for even novice bloggers.

Through MyBlogLog, you can download widgets that you can place on your site. These widgets are small programs that can track your visitors and let you communicate with them. The “Recent Readers” widget displays the list of MyBlogLog users that have recently viewed your blog. Most bloggers find this useful as a networking tool, since they can easily click on their readers’ names, communicate with them, and find out the other blogs they visit. The “Top 5 Links” widget, on the other hand, lets you know the top 5 outgoing links clicked by your users. Through these widgets, you can tell who has visited your blog and the sites they visited after yours. It’s a great way to see what types of sites interest your readers. However, pasting the widget code on your site requires a bit of HTML knowledge.

Since MyBlogLog bridges the gap between blog writer and reader, it’s much easier for bloggers to build a community with this application. Its popularity also makes it easier for bloggers to drive additional traffic to their sites.

MyBlogLog runs on most web browsers, and the code for the widgets is compatible with HTML and PHP coded blogs. This includes blogs made through WordPress, Yahoo 360, Typepad, and MySpace.

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Nowadays, web analytics services are getting a better share of the limelight. Site owners are discovering just how powerful these number crunching tools can be. They turn what used to be guesswork into a more scientific approach, which translates into efficient business spending and a greater return on investments.

HitTail is one such service. Like other popular analytics tools, it also requires users to paste a JavaScript code at the bottom of every page they wish to track. It gives you real-time stats about who visited your site and when, what keywords they used to reach you, and conversion tracking

However, HitTail is unique in its approach to keyword optimization. Dubbed the “Long Tail Method”, it looks at search terms that got visitors to your site but are not being used by most of your competitors. HitTail can give you suggestions as to which of these keywords to focus on. It works in the belief that if your content is better optimized for these terms, you’ll get more traffic from search engines.

The basic account is offered for free, and is suitable for small web sites that get 100,000 hits a month or less. For a small fee, you can upgrade to HitTail Plus, which lets you create sitemaps, receive keyword suggestions via RSS feed or email, keep all the data forever, view keywords trend over time, and use the tool on secure web pages. Plans for high volume web sites are also available.

With a little patience and determination, this service can be a tremendous boost to your business.

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Google Analytics is God’s gift to mankind - or rather Google’s gift to web designers, web developers, business executives, advertisers, and virtually anyone who makes a living out of the Internet.

This free online tool gives a wealth of information which enables you to track and evaluate web site performance, and make the corresponding modifications to increase effectiveness. Best of all, it’s as easy as 1-2-3. Simply open a Google Analytics account, copy-paste a few lines of code into the pages you’d like to track, and voila, sit back and let the reports trickle in. You can also schedule these reports to be sent to you via email on a daily or weekly basis, or at any time that you please. The option to collaborate with other users makes it ideal for use in an office environment.

You can use Google Analytics to measure the efficiency of your marketing campaign strategies such as ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, paid links, search engines, and keywords. It can even give you a trend of your site’s performance over a pre-defined period of time, so that you’ll know if you’re heading towards the right direction. It’s also possible to study your visitors’ demographics like country, city, language, connection speed and other pertinent data. A map is available showing the location of your visitors, which will be helpful in fine-tuning future ad campaigns to reach your target audience.

Truly, Google Analytics is slowly but surely changing the e-commerce landscape. If you can learn to maximize its host of features, you’ll soon be converting more clicks into tangible profit.

Google Analytics is viewable on most internet browsers.

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Do you know how many hits your site gets in a day? Do you know where those hits are coming from? If you don’t even have a rough estimate for an answer, this means that you don’t check your site statistics enough. Knowing about your site stats can help you plan your site better, and a simple program can show you all the necessary information. One such program is WebLog Expert Lite.

WebLog Expert Lite analyzes your site log, allowing you to know more about your site traffic. This application gives you a basic traffic summary, including average hits, page views, and visitors per day. It also shows in-depth information about files your site visitors accessed, bandwidth, referring URLs, web browsers, operating systems, search engines, and more. The output of WebLog Expert Lite is an easy-to-navigate HTML file with charts and graphs about your site traffic.

Using WebLog Expert Lite could be tricky for those new to web publishing, especially since you need to know where your log files are located on your web server. The presence of these files depend on your host, and you need to ask them where these files are if you can’t find them yourself. Because of this, newbie web publishers might want to stick to their hosting plan’s built-in site stats program, if they have one. More experienced publishers, however, will find WebLog Expert Lite indispensable, especially since it can analyze log information for multiple sites.

The program has three versions, Professional, Standard, and Lite. Although the Lite version is completely free, the other versions have free 30-day trials. All versions support IIS and Apache logs, and can automatically detect your log format.

WebLog Expert Lite works on a Windows platform, version 95 and above.

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