devrun
September 23, 2013
Web Analytics has turned out to be one of the most pursued strategies on the internet. Online marketers are realizing that the competition for the customers’ mind and pocket share is fierce and one has to be on the top of one’s skills to survive. Web Analytics is one way in which you could fulfil the objective. By capturing detailed information about the success or otherwise of your online marketing efforts, you open up avenues for improvement of weak areas and further fortifying of areas where you excel. There are various web analytics tools in the market and your choice should ideally depend upon your requirement. You should first decide as to what is your objective of using a web analytics tool. On deriving the objective, you can then distinguish between tools to select the most suited one.
Among the popular tools, in the market, Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst happen to be reigning at the moment. These are two tools which are considered to be on the zenith of the stock of analytics tools. In the following part of this article, we will try and unravel the differences between the two tools.IMPLEMENTATION: WINNER: GOOGLE ANALYTICSThe implementation of SiteCatalyst is very complex. It requires personalization and that adds to complexity of its implementation. If you are new to the industry, it might take you some days or weeks to implement the tool and get started with it.Google Analytics, on the other hand, offers optional implementation of various complex elements. This hastens the process and provides the desired flexibility. Its implementation is basic, simple and fast.
In terms of the menu options too, the Adobe SiteCatalyst Vs Google Analytics tussle is dominated by the latter. SiteCatalyst offers small sized menu options which make it very challenging to browse through them and locate the element that one is looking for. There have been changes that have been made to it; however, some problems still persist. While Google isn’t the most convincing in terms of its menu options either, it still manages to offer more user friendliness than its arch rival. The organisation of the menu and the structuring of the data is more intuitive in case of Google Analytics.
When you compare the two web analytics tools in terms of their dashboards, there is hardly anything that you will find there. Both of them offer a strong and user friendly dashboard which makes comparison simpler. The most appealing element of SiteCatalyst’s dashboard is the way it compares three elements together. On the other hand, Google Analytics’ dashboard allows you to generate reports on selected filters with complete ease.SEGMENTATION: WINNER: GOOGLE ANALYTICSSegmentation is not only about breaking the data in segments. It is about much more. You need to derive substantial information through segmentation. While both the tools offer equally proficient segmentation services; filtering, after a level, can lead to higher cost with SiteCatalyst. It is, hence, that Google Analytics again comes out as the winner in this comparison.
SiteCatalyst has the ability to create calculated metrics. On the other hand, Google Analytics doesn’t boast of such capability. Most of the important metrics, though, are already integrated with the tool.Hence, both these tools present their own share of positives and negatives.
