think tank forum

i'm working my way out of the google database. slowly.

i'm off of google analytics, giving piwik a shot. it's alright, i suppose. at least i get to keep my data myself.

do you guys do web analytics on your websites? if so, what do you use?

i think web analytics are even valuable for personal sites. looking forward to comments on this.

<3 lr

We use Google Analytics at work.

I grep my log files on my own sites.

I don't use Web Analytics. I can understand how it's useful for business, but I don't see the value for my personal site...

That being said piwik is indeed the "standard answer" to Google-free web analytics...

I'm trying to be aware of my personal online presence, especially because I'm in academia--my name is my brand, to an extent. I just want to know who is checking me out and where else they've been! :)

Sure, I consider my name a "brand" as well, but I wasn't aware that you could use Google analytics to tell "who is checking me out and where else they've been"?

You can at least look at HTTP referers[sic] for your homepage.

Piwik hasn't really been helpful, after all. Google doesn't share keywords anymore, so I don't know who's searching what before they land where they do.

Typically, yes, it would give me some idea of...
- geolocation - the geographic location of my audience
- domain - the institution of my audience
- content viewed (keywords/referrer) - what people are looking at and why