I’ve tried various methods and providers over the course of the last few years but Google always seemed to come out top. There is the very nice Mint, there is the OpenSource piwik and grand pa’s favourite AWStats and way too many others to list here. From online service – like Google Analytics (GA) – where you put some JavaScript on your site to server based software that churns through your web servers log files (and eats CPU and memory and disk space in the process). All have their advantages and disadvantages, but in the end GA’s easy to use interface and comprehensive feature set (especially the integration with Google’s own advertising programme) always brought me back to them.

Along came Clicky Web Statistics with a fresh and up-to-date look and feel to it. It does what GA does but in my (humble) opinion I find it easier to find the information I’m looking for and that helps me bring more content that’s relevant to my blog’s readers. In the end that is the difference between a successful website/blog and one that is not: drawing the visitors you want without spending (lots of) money on advertising.

Clicky Web Statistics helps me identify not only where my visitors are but makes it plain easy for me to see what they were looking for. It’s also enabling me to put the JavaScript on my own server which is something GA has still not been able to do (not without lot’s of work anyway).

See it for yourself – it’s free! I’ve evaluated their service and now signed up with the annual PRO plan, which is quite affordable and money well spend because it helps me be more efficient.

Before you say it: yes, GA is completely free, but you will need to spend a lot of time learning how to get the most from it whereas Clicky gives me everything without the learning curve.