Stats tracking using Mint and Google Analytics
Wednesday April 23, 2008 - 22 months ago
Posted by James Ellis / Filed under Code, Software, Web
Most every web project we push out the door uses both Mint and Google Analytics (GA) for site stats/tracking/analytics.
Analytics software has come a long way since the days of server log file analysis programs such as Webalizer. Modern jobs like Mint and GA take a different approach, using client-side Javascript to grab more in-depth user data. The client-side approach better differentiates between humans and robots, and captures the return visits of users browsing pages from their browser’s cache. And though it was once a concern, nowadays only weirdos are browsing without Javascript support. They don’t count.
Mint
http://www.haveamint.com
Unless you’re juggling metrics at an ad agency, Mint will generally get the job done, delivering a well organized and easy to digest overview of site activity. A single page/interface reveals your latest visits, referrers, pages, searches and more.
The user experience is very different from GA. Mint doesn’t dig particularly deep, but it’s fast and fun. The interface is chock full of Javascript/AJAX flippity-do’s.
Mint is a self-hosted app and requires a server running both PHP and MySQL — basic gear. Mint collects data via Javascript, then drops it into a MySQL database using a bit of PHP. Mint runs quick, provides real-time stats, and is easy to install.
Cost: $30 per site license (per domain). Cheap.
The Visits module:
The User Agents module displaying Screen Resolutions. Notice how many users are still at 1024×768, even on a site generally trafficked by design/tech folks.
The User Agents module displaying Browsers. Sadly, 10% are still using IE6.
The User Agents module displaying Flash Player installs. 94% on 9, amazing. Thanks Youtube…
Favorite feature: Mint provides an RSS feed of your site’s newest unique referrers. Plug this into Google Reader (or whatever you like) and you can keep up every new website, blog, link-list, etc. that directs traffic to your site. Beyond the obvious utility, this tool can also reveal web theft in progress.
Mint Demo:
http://www.haveamint.com/about/demo
Mint Feature Highlights:
http://www.haveamint.com/about/feature_highlights
Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics
Upon acquiring Urchin’s tracking software in 2005, Google re-released the software as Google Analytics, free of charge. Given Urchin’s popularity and the new non-price, GA was everywhere seemingly overnight.
GA does fifty-eleven things; it certainly out-features Mint. You’ll find charts, graphs, tables and maps everywhere, for every possible metric. It’s great for analyzing very specific trends. You could spend hours digging through it all.
You can manage any number (or at least a whole bunch) of domains within a single GA/Google account. Not everyone manages a pile of domains, but for those that do, this is a big deal.
If you’re prepping a stats report for a client, check out the export-to-PDF or XML feature. GA produces very attractive PDFs which you can then take into Illustrator and chop up as needed. This includes charts, and it’s all vector.
Unlike Mint, GA allows for the tracking of Flash events, and of file downloads (PDFs, mp3s, etc.) See here and here.
GA even offers a Content Overlay view, allowing you to browse your site with GA sprinkling stats all over the page. You can see which links are getting the most clicks. Check it:
(If you’re into this sort of data visualization, check out Crazy Egg. That’s their whole deal.)
Another interesting feature is the Map Overlay. By analyzing user IP addresses, GA is able to map which countries visitors are coming from.
Why run both?
The biggest difference between Mint and GA is that GA is always a day behind. GA only updates account data once every 24 hours. (Real-time analytics would introduce massive data-processing overhead for Google.) Mint, however, always displays up to the minute data.
Analyzing trends is great, but there are many instances where you want real-time stats. If you can’t ride the refresh button the day you get linked up on Digg, NYTimes, etc., you’ll have missed the fun.
Questions? Comments? Contact James via email - .