Website Analytics

Site with a lot of traffic should use dedicated hosting. But, how do you know if your site gets that much traffic? Further, what kind of traffic does your site get? Answering these questions will help you make the decision to move to a dedicated hosting package – if you can figure out your traffic data, that is! Luckily, it's not as difficult as you may think.

Almost every website owner or content manager has come across Google Analytics at one point. The problem with Analytics is that staring at a jumble of charts and numbers can make your head spin. Really. So, you have to learn how to customize Google Analytics, play with the dashboard, and set everything up so that you can log in, take a peek, and move on. Doesn't that sound nice?

Google makes this relatively simple, too. Just log into your dashboard (or set one up), click on the ‘+New Dashboard' option that you will see on the lefthand side of your screen, and add a new dashboard. From there, you can set up widgets any way that you like, so that you can pick the graphic that makes the most sense to you. Or, you can simply use a shared dashboard that someone else has created – there are a ton of these online!

Google Analytics may have the market cornered, or so it seems, when it comes to site analytics. But, there are other tools that you can use too. MixPanel is one such tool. This tool is really fun to use because it breaks down analytics into very specific parts – like names, addresses, and IDs of people that have viewed your content. MixPanel is very useful when it comes to finding out your exact target market. If you want to spend hour studying your market, this is the tool for you.

Another popular tool that can be used to track data is Hubspot. But, I'll warn you, Hubspot is not cheap – not at all. So, if you want to dish out thousands of dollars on a tool, Hubspot might be it. Otherwise, use Google Analytics until you have extra cash to spend. No matter what tool you use, though, you should always be tracking your site data. How else are you going to find out if you have any readers or visitors?

If your site is getting thousands of hits daily, it's time to go dedicated. It's just a faster and better all-around solution, so I highly recommend it. Plus, you can find all kinds of reliable dedicated hosting reviews right on this site – and that couldn't make your selection easier.

Need help setting up an analytics tool? Or, do you have a favorite tool to add to this list? Let us know below!