What good is a website if no one sees it? Traffic is something that every website owner desires. But, how do you know if you’re actually getting those hits and views? There are multiple companies and resources on the internet that are there to help with this. One of the most commonly known and robust would be Google Analytics, but there are many other options such as plugins like Jetpack and new companies like Clicky.
So, how do you choose?
Honestly, all of them will give you information, but the truth of the matter is, how MUCH do you really want to know? If you’re like myself and just want to know which blog posts or pages are getting views at a quick glance, JetPack is a great choice. However, there are those that want to know live stats on demand, too, and Clicky does that with ease. Others want “the sky is the limit” kind of data and Google loves to provide it. It really depends on how much you want to learn and watch. Below, I’ll discuss these three different options and how to put them into action for yourself.
Clicky: Web Time Web Analytics
The homepage of Clicky’s website definitely goes into detail about all of the special features that they offer. Everything on this analytic provider is real time. Meaning, if it is really important for you to know what is happening on your at-that-present-moment, Click is your service! If you’re running a specific promotion, or challenging your followers on social media to click to a specific page, you can see how many are on your page at that moment and have been there…just having to wait for a refresh time to come by before your analytics data will update to give you more accurate readings.
Another thing that I enjoy about Clicky (while there are many) is their ability to view Heatmaps. Essentially, this will show you where cursors land the most often on your website. Not only that, but you can set a specific goal that you want to track Heatmaps for and they are all capture in real time and can be viewed as individual visits.
I urge you to look into Clicky and seeing what all they have to offer. Also, put it on your website and give it a test run for yourself. Most of these analytics are free or will offer full versions as trials. Hooking up Clicky is actually very simple. If you have a custom WordPress website, you can simply install the Click plugin and put in your ID and you’re good to go. If you are wanting to use Clicky to track your Keller Williams eAgentC website, it’s as easy as adding the HTML code that Clicky gives you to your 1.5 area under the Source area of the Disclaimer. Need help with this? Let us know and we can assist however we can!
Jetpack: Stats
Jetpack is a multifaceted plugin that is offered by WordPress.com for all installations of WordPress, including Piggyback Blogs. While, Jetpack includes MANY different features, we’re only going to discuss the ability to view site stats. Jetpack from WordPress.com makes the most popular stats very easy to understand with a straight forward interface.
When you download/activate the Jetpack Plugin and connect it with WordPress.com (which usually requires a different set of logins than what you use to log into your website) the ability to view your post and page views is automatically enabled. Another thing to make note of with this plugin, however, that is only available for custom sites that run off of the WordPress platform.
If you are wanting to track stats on your eAgentC website, this unfortunately will not be the option for you. Jetpack will only track visits of pages and posts within WordPress. However, if you have Piggyback 
Blogs, you know that what you do on your blog is what will impact your Search Engine Optimization. To most, the visits on your Piggyback Blog will matter more than your visits on your eAgentC website.
For custom WordPress site users, this plugin is a given. I personally use it with all of my own websites, along with the mobile WordPress application and love that I will also get notifications when my website is “booming” and, frankly, that’s exciting! It’s a great option to utilize and even if you pair it with the other two options, then go for it…there’s no such thing as too much data!
Google Analytics
The King of the Hill, Google, of course has a solution for gathering and viewing all the information from your website. As with everything from Google, it can be massive and will have a bit of a learning curve in 
order to understand how to navigate something so robust. I have left this to the end of this post mostly because I even feel overwhelmed by it, but that is 100% because I haven’t really invested the time to explore.
Through Google Analytics, you can discover if you have more viewers visiting your site from Internet Explorer versus Chrome, or if you have mostly Mobile visits versus desktop. Also, You can gather what search terms your visitors are finding you by or from where they are coming from. You are able to set up specific alarms to let you know when you hit certain metrics. Another added value to Google Analytics is that they also offer a mobile application in order to view your stats on-the-go.
Google Analytics can be added in very easily to a custom website by plugin, HTML, or meta tags that are given to you through the set up process. Essentially, everything is tracked through a UA code that you are provided. That same code can be used on an eAgentC website within section 2.4. There’s an input area that asks for that UA. Then, you would simply have to pull the code over to your Piggyback Blog by refreshing your “look”.
Let’s wrap it up
To conclude, even these three analytics providers are just the tip of the ice burg when it comes to learning from the traffic that visit your website and how you can make your site better over time. If you implement one or all of the resources listed below, you will have more power in your hands to give your readers a better experience in the long run. Knowledge is power, as they say.