The core of an online business is its website. An online business can never be stable without a website where possible customers can view the products or services offered, and read and/or request more information; but it does not mean that having a working website is all you need to have a successful business online. You see, a website is not just an online store; it is also one of the major bases for improving a marketing strategy by analyzing the website’s traffic which can be done by using a website analytics tool.

Piwik is an open-source web analytics tool that you can use for free. It is always within the top three lists of reviewers and bloggers alike so future users can expect nothing but the best and the most comprehensive reports from their websites.

Testing tools such as this one can take time especially if the only way to test them is by using them. Shifting to other web analytics tool can be time consuming. Fortunately, Piwik lets you view what you will be getting before you actually spend time in installing it to your servers. This way, you already know that you are satisfied with the program.

The interface is superb in a way that the information is presented in a very user-friendly and organized way. You can easily find the information that you are looking for. This is very impressive considering that this tool provides a very comprehensive report which includes almost everything. How they have integrated information in the charts is simply ingenious. Even total beginners will have an easy time using this program.

One very distinct feature of the program is that the dashboard is fully customizable. You can add more widgets if you want to see more information; likewise, you can delete those that you do not need. You can also interchange the position of the widgets. This is very convenient especially if you want to compare two widgets that are at the opposite sides of the screen.

Below are the most commonly used widget and how Piwik breaks the information down as well as what they have included in each widget.

Last visits graph

This widget includes the number of visits a website had within a span of one week. They are arranged in a vertical bar graph so the user will be able to know which weeks had the most and least visits. Each week has a point in the graph that you can click and in doing so will update the other widgets showing the information that has been gathered within that time. You can also export the data in formats such as PHP, CSV, and Excel; or as an image.

List of keywords/search engines

Aside from showing the number of visits referred by each keyword, the information is further broken down showing the number of visits that came from a particular search engine. The same goes with the search engine widget. Upon clicking the search engine, you will be able to see the number of visits from a specific keyword/key phrase that was searched using that specific search engine.

There are other widgets such as by browsers, visitor countries, length of visits, and a lot more. The features are so numerous that it will probably take a whole e-book to enumerate and describe them.

Formats

You can view the information in each widget as a vertical bar graph, a pie chart, or as a tag cloud. You can also export the data in different formats enabling you to easily study the trends.

Search

If you have a very huge website that covers a lot of different niches and has a massive marketing campaign, you will probably have a hard time scanning through all the information. Fortunately, a simple search is enabled for each applicable widget. For example, if you want to see how many visits you received from a particular keyword and you can’t find it in the displayed results, you can search for it. You do not need to click next and scan through the list just to find that keyword.

Why should you use Piwik instead of other programs?

Open API/You own your data

For regular users, this may not be important but to those who have advanced computer skills, this means that they can get their hands on information crucial in fully optimizing the effectiveness of the website.

Plugins

With Piwik, you can add and build your own plugins! If you are not contented with what they are already offering, you always have the chance to build your own.

I have already mentioned the other unique features of Piwik such as a customizable dashboard, viewing and exporting data in different formats, and a dynamic user interface.

Piwik vs. Google Analytics

It is a fact that way much more people use Google analytics. There are a lot of internet marketers out there who have mediocre knowledge when it comes to online marketing. Most of them don’t know that Google analytics is just one of the many web analytics programs out there. The reason why this Google tool is more popular than the others is because the tool is immediately offered to AdWords users and AdWords, as we know, is inarguably the most used online advertising program. This fact alone tells us that even though Google analytics is not very popular with top webmasters, there is no way that other same programs can beat it when it comes to the number of users.

Lately though, Google users have been shifting to other web analytics programs. When it comes to functionality and ease of use, Piwik is the sure winner. You have total control with your data if you use Piwik. If there are restrictions when it comes to other uses, they would be nothing compared to Google’s very strict rules. Piwik is a very flexible web analytics tool with way much more useful features than Google’s. Overall, Piwik has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from its users proving itself to be one of the ‘must use’ web analytics tools.

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