Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
Account Creation Very simple, creating an account can take less than 2 minutes for anyone with a Very simple, however accounts are currently only available for Y! advertisers via account
Google account. Upon account creation the final step is a page showing the copy & team or through a YWA consultant (such as Insightr). The process is very simple, taking
paste tracking code, after this you see the account management page. less than 2 minutes for basic setup.
Process: Sign Up > Site Details > Personal Details > Agree to Terms (note – data Process: One page sign-up by YWA consultant, email invitation is sent to client with
sharing is on by default) > Get Code access code. Upon accessing account the client is able to get tracking code and manage
account.
User Access A user manager interface requires you to enter an email address, nominate if the user A user manager interface requires you to enter a name and email address, followed by
Management is reporting or admin (can do/see everything) then asks you which profiles the user can your own name. This creates a customised email that is sent to the user to accept. The
see. The email address entered needs to be associated with a Google account (simple user needs to have a Yahoo account (instructions provided in email). The signup process
process, but can be difficult to explain to people) allows you to select your own Yahoo address, or create a new one.
There is no confirmation email sent to the new user, so this adds additional admin The new user is automatically setup as a Power User, but the administrator can setup as
work for the manager. Administrator, Power User, User, Restricted User across all or selected projects.
What’s interesting here, is the administrators can check ‘last login date’ – always a useful
indication of whether users are accessing data!
YWA also allows an ‘access by IP’ feature, so for example only employees can access
from the office – adds additional level of security.
Data collection process Basic tracking code is copy / paste to website: Basic tracking code is copy / paste to website:
Data is only collected for browsers that accept JavaScript YWA includes a <noscript> tag which can impact data collection (this can of course be
<script type="text/javascript">
removed if preferred)
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl."
: "http://www."); <!–Yahoo! Web Analytics – All rights reserved 
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google- <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://d.yimg.com/mi/ywa.js”></script>
analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); <script type=”text/javascript”>
</script> /*globals YWA*/
<script type="text/javascript"> var YWATracker = YWA.getTracker(“xxxxxxxx”);
try { //YWATracker.setDocumentName(“”);
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxx-1”); //YWATracker.setDocumentGroup(“”);
pageTracker._trackPageview(); YWATracker.submit();
} catch(err) {}</script> </script>
<noscript>
<div><img src=”http://a.analytics.yahoo.com/p.pl?a= xxxxxxxx &js=no”
width=”1” height=”1” alt=”” /></div>
</noscript>
Tracking Code Most data customisation for GA is carried out using a combination of profile Most data customisation for YWA is carried out using in-page JavaScript, requiring
Customisation management and filters. Data is usually collected based on the page URI, but can be considerably more planning and developer assistance prior to implementation.
over-ridden. Filters can then be used to modify the URI, eg from
16 fixed dimensions (eg content hierarchy, ecommerce, internal search, campaigns)
/products/category.php?cat=12&type=1
38 custom dimensions – allow customisation of multiple dimension properties:
to Name
Parameter
/products/category/shoes/male
Variable Expiration (eg after visit, event x)
In addition to this there is a comprehensive help website that allows developers to
These dimensions are assigned core properties that cannot be changed called “scope” –
tweak and modify the code to specific requirements through a JavaScript api -
eg session text, session integer, page text, page integer, date, action, campaign.
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/gaJS/gaJSApi.html
Additionally custom dimensions can be assigned to custom groups (eg for Ajax
5 custom dimensions – three types of scope (visitor, session, page) that can be used to
applications or Video) to make analysis simpler when looking for dimensions in custom
supplement standard pagenaming. All custom dimensions are managed through
reporting.
JavaScript, making it a little less flexible than other tools (YWA included) that manage
scope and properties through an admin console.
There is also a feature called event tracking that allows further custom dimensions to
be tracked (eg for RIA’s or Video).
In summary the variables that collect data for analysis are:
PAGES:
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
.trackPageview(name) // page name (also used for goals)
CUSTOM DIMENSIONS:
_setCustomVar(index, name, value, opt_scope) // somewhat confusing
EVENTS:
._trackEvent(cat, action, label, value) // 3 dimensions of event data for category (eg
video), action (eg play), label (eg howto-make) and one aggregated value (eg 30)
ECOMMERCE:
._addItem (orderId, sku, name, category, price, quantity) // 3 product dimensions (sku,
name & category) along with product price
_addTrans (orderId, affiliation, total, tax, shipping, city, state, country) // purchase
dimensions – value, tax, shipping
Data latency Typically less than 30 mins (for large sites), but have seen up to 1 day on small Typically real-time, but can be delayed up to 20 minutes from current experiences
accounts (<100 pv/day)
Default ‘dashboard’ Is quite pretty, and provides a glimpse of some of the more interesting data Google YWA provides one out of the box ‘basic’ dashboard for demographics (I assume to
captures. The big text, basic metrics and bold charts make it more ‘interesting’ for non highlight the Yahoo datamart integration). While these dashboards are not as pretty as
experts. the ones offered by GA they offer something quite different: flexibility.
The dashboard is dynamic, so custom dates update all reportlets – more useful is the Although this isn’t a comparison with paid tools, the YWA dashboards are very similar to
‘compare with past’ feature of dates shows impact on basic traffic metrics (eg bounce the dashboards the Omniture offers in Site Catalyst. Reportlets (see http://bit.ly/ywa-
rate, pages/visit, visits etc). dashboards) can be one of multiple datatypes:
Functionality is very limited: Dashboard can be exported in pdf or xml format (though I Tabular Data, Pie Chart (*not recommended), Bar & Row Chart, KPI’s, Metrics Guage,
am yet to see anyone make use of the xml markup – which contains all the data to Goal Performance, Trend Chart, Notes
rebuild the GA UI in an application). Can also be emailed in 5 formats and scheduled;
unfortunately the email always contains an attachment and can’t be sent as body of
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
email. Note – the csv and tsv email reports send garbage data (visits only). Note – the
pdf export contains ‘expanded reports’ and not just the dashboard – so there is a lot
of garbage data included.
Reportlets in the default dashboard can be added to and deleted, however only one
dashboard report is available and cannot be shared with other users.
Report navigation GA has made reporting a very simple task, I assume because they recognise most of YWA reporting is still simple, but because of the additional options available I would say
their users will not be ‘analytics’ folk, but people who want to make sure their website it’s considerably more complex than GA, my assumption here is that YWA was built for
is doing the job it should. analysts not marketing folks.
Reports are bucketed into logical sections via a LH nav structure into Intelligence, Reports are bucketed into logical sections via a LH nav structure into Dashboard,
Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content, Goals and Ecommerce. The entry page is always the Summary, Traffic, Demographics, Content, Navigation, Marketing, System, Interest
GA dashboard. Groups, Bookmarks and Saved Reports.
Landing pages for the sections contain summary data, and links to reports, additionally There are no landing pages for each of the sections, instead the menu opens up and
the LH nav opens up to see more detailed reports. presents reports available within that section. There are up to three levels of drill down
within the LH nav, making it difficult for new users to find data.
Using date box, different dates can be selected or allowing comparison of two date
periods. Comparison data is absolute but shows % difference as well. Using date box, different dates can be selected or allowing comparison of two date
periods. Comparison data is either absolute or can show % difference – this makes for
Data in the report can be segmented with up to 4 ‘advanced’ segments – this can
interesting visualisation options.
make the screen rather cluttered, but useful for rapid prototyping of analyses. The
visualisations (charts) of most reports can be customised by date (day, week, month Once a ‘default’ report has loaded we really start to see the strengths of YWA emerge,
periods) or metric (change metric, or show 2 metrics). a number of analysis options open up including:
Tabular data can be shown in different views (Tabular, Pie Chart [% of total], Advanced filtering (multiple metrics and dimensions can be filtered)
Performance, Comparison, Detail (ironically is actually a summary). Colour coding (any metric can be highlighted and colour coding applied to us using
simple rules based engine – eg >10% Red; <2% Green – a colour code can be applied
The different reporting options for each report make it quite simple to perform
to this report or all using metric)
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
comparative analysis, but drilldown options are very limited. Data Drill-down [cross reference filters] (any row in a report can drill down to any other
dimension or to show pathing pre/post). *For the pathing – anyone who’s used Omniture
It’s possible to change the analysis dimension, and by clicking on a row in a report you
Discover on Demand will recognise YWA allow the same analysis capabilities
can access more detail for that data, which can be drilled down by one further
dimension. The default reports do not contain too much data, and may appear ‘weak’ initially – but
through the “Customise Report” link in the top nav we’ll have access to full metrics /
More depth in reporting to be seen if goals, ecommerce or adsense data is integrated
dimension customisation (see custom report analysis). Once customised, the report can
– this will show up as additional tabs in reporting.
be either bookmarked (into bookmark folder) or saved (into saved reports folder).
Each report can be filtered using a filter box at the bottom of a report, this box allows
The report can also be added to a dashboard or exported / emailed.
inclusion of regular impressions to improve filtering capabilities – very helpful when you
want to explore a subset of data. Summary – great for data customisation and exploration but will take much longer than
GA to find the exact visualisation you’re trying to find. The drill down and pathing
The report can also be added to a dashboard or exported / emailed.
capabilities help with hypothesis generation for testing.
Summary – great for reporting, and summary analysis (segments help enormously
here) but drilldown capabilities are very limited – reducing scope for analysis
Report saving / Reports cannot be saved or bookmarked, but can be added to the single dashboard, Any customised report can be bookmarked or saved. If you modify a bookmarked
bookmarking which gives access to these reports. report you are given an option to overwrite or create new bookmark.
All bookmarks can be edited through a bookmark manager and shared with all other
users (who can be given rights to edit). The bookmark editor allows you to create and
mange bookmark folders.
Report Filtering GA offers what is known as “Advanced Table Filtering”, a way of filtering data based YWA offers what is known as “Cross Reference Filters”, YWA refer to these as ways of
on the dimensions and metrics currently available in the report (this means for doing quick real-time segmentation. Reports can be filtered on any of the metrics that
example we can’t filter on visitors from Thailand in a product report) exist in the report and by any dimension (standard or custom) that exist in the
datawarehouse.
Note – when reports are filtered with cross reference filters the charting functionality of
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
the report is disabled.
Report distribution / Reports can be emailed in 5 different export formats (vector pdf, xml, csv, csv for Reports can be exported or emailed in 4 different export formats (vector pdf, html, csv,
emailing excel, tsv) and scheduled for daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly distribution to a excel) wich can be compressed if required through an export manager.
nominated list.
The export manager provides options to run an instant export or to send the report as
I’ve had problems with scheduled reports not appearing for 24hours after they were due to an email, the email message can be customised with a note and recipients can be added
arrive so this can be a concern when including in (eg) monthly analyses. through a CC or BCC field.
Reports can be exported in 5 different export formats (vector pdf, xml, csv, csv for Sending the report as HTML format sends the report as the body of the email, especially
excel, tsv) useful for managers who don’t want to open attachments! The HTML formatting of this
email could be optimised, but works.
The properties of both emailed and exported data are not transparent – there is no
option for the # of rows to be exported, this is instead based on the settings of the The scope of the export includes an option for # of rows (which can be extended to up
report. Many people have complained that only 200 rows can be exported at once – to 200,000 rows.
especially bad for SEO analysis.
YWA also provides a print friendly format for those times when you need to run across
There is a URL hack to extend this limit that the GA blog has discussed; this hack doesn’t to someone with some data very quickly.
always work in OSX.
Support network Very strong. Largely due to the size of the GAAC consultant network there are Quite weak. I think this is largely due to the limited size of YWA globally, the Indextools
numerous bloggers who will share GA tips and tricks, notable here are Epikone, team had penetration only with European clients. However, although the community
ROIRevolution, VKIStudios and Lunametrics. Additionally within Twitter there is active may not be as active as GA there is certainly good support in social media for YWA
discussion around the hashtag #gAnalytics. clients using both the hashtag #YWA and from the official twitter account
@YWebAnalytics who usually respond within an hour.
GA is a self support product, unless you are using a consultant, as such many users
complain about support. All considered, there is a wealth of online support through YWA is also a self support product, but since it is only available through Yahoo Account
both the API website (for developers) and the support website (for analysts). There Management or through YWA consultants (such as Insightr) I suspect this is less of a
have been times where I have found conflicting recommendations within the GA help problem for YWA clients. Consultant support is strong, Yahoo carefully select partners
who are well experienced in analytics and are strong supporters of the product and the
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
website, especially around the use of regex in filters. direction of the team.
The GA blog is regularly updated with helpful tips and tricks, though sometimes There is a help website, that is sometimes missing useful information but does provide
contains errors in analysis – I have seen instances where comments I’ve written that answers to most (non-advanced) questions. This seems to be regularly updated, and has
criticise the blogger have not been approved. a feedback section; additionally consultants have their own client support system to
escalate issues.
I expect that as YWA opens up the support systems will need to expand to cope, but at
present they seem adequate.
There isn’t a YWA blog, though Dennis Mortensen regularly blogs about YWA through
his own site.
Consultant network GA offers two types of consultant certification, most recently they added individual YWA currently offers a YWACN (Yahoo Web Analytics Consultant Network) a
certification, which for a fee of US$50 a GA user can take an online exam and get a network of independent analytics specialists who can help provide analytics consulting
certificate. This system has been very popular. services to Yahoo! customers, including assistance with analytics planning, implementation
and usage.
For larger consultants there is a the GAAC (Google Analytics Authorised Consultants)
programme which has seen an explosion in the number of web analytics consultancies Consultants are selected based on strict client criteria found here: http://bit.ly/ywa-
grow who solely support GA, especially in the US and Asia. Consultants are selected ywacn-criteria
based on strict client criteria found here: http://bit.ly/ga-gaac
Consultants can be found here: http://bit.ly/ywa-ywacn
Consultants can be found here: http://bit.ly/ga-list-gaac
Campaign management GA has a very basic, but easily managed campaign management feature based on url YWA offers many different ways of managing campaigns based on how many campaign
querystring parameters, additionally GA integrates seamlessly with one-click tracking of you run, and based on the types of campaigns and the complexity of data you wish to
Google Adwords campaigns and api level integration (eg impressions, costs etc). For see. Additionally YWA integrates at an api level with Yahoo Panama, MSN Adcenter and
non-Google adwords campaigns managers must develop a manual process to create Google Adwords for search campaign integration.
unique tracking codes, using a 5 parameter model:
The most basic type of campaign management in YWA is based on manual creation of
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
utm_campaign (eg campaign name), utm_medium (eg media type), utm_source (eg tracking codes and parameters on an individual campaign basis – this is easy but I’d not
placement), utm_content (eg banner name), utm_term (eg keyword) recommend this if you run more than a couple of campaigns a month or want to have
detailed breakdowns of campaign properties (eg site placement, banner name) in
Default campaign reporting in GA uses the medium / source combination, so it is
reporting.
recommended to use these two parameters as a default.
The most useful feature of YWA campaign management is the bulk upload feature,
This url parameter process frequently causes problems for media agencies who use an
where campaigns can be designed, properties created offline in a spreadsheet tool, then
adserver such as Dart for Advertisers – analysts who wish to see very granular
uploaded into YWA. This campaign classification feature is much more closely aligned to
breakdown of campaign data can cause severe trafficking problems for the adserver
how Omniture Site Catalyst allows campaign management for large advertisers.
(note – this is not a problem with Atlas where traffic sheets can be built in Excel and
uploaded) YWA also allows managers to pull data directly from a querystring into a campaign
scope variable; however at time of writing this feature is disabled / not working.
Campaign attribution By default all GA campaign reports are based on last click attribution, with the cookie By default all YWA campaign reports are based on “intelligent” attribution (meaning: if a
holding its value for a quite astonishing 6 month window using the __utmz cookie. For visit was from a campaign, attribute to campaign, otherwise check cookie to see if visitor
anyone used to (eg) a DoubleClick or Atlas 30 day cookie this long duration can cause ever came from a campaign and allocate to original campaign). In reporting it is possible
strange things to happen with data, and users might be recommended to modify this to add cross reference filters that will apply a media attribution window using “Direct”
cookie to a 30 day window or other window that matches your business (last touch), “Original” (first touch) or “Intelligent” (see above description for logic).
measurement approach.
Because YWA attribution is based on filtering, it can be a very slow process to make
This standard attribution model can be overridden with a &utm_nooverride=1 sense of this feature and to grab useful insights.
parameter, that will default to first touch attribution
For businesses looking to run media attribution models you’d be better off modelling
your adserver data..
Data Import Services Currently no data can be imported into GA YWA offers a campaign classification upload service, whereby data classifying campaign
codes is uploaded and converted into campaign variables using a template campaign
workbook.
YWA also offers API level imports of SEM PPC data from Google, Yahoo & MSN for
112 Towner Road Singapore 327809 | Company Registration Number: 53135723J | talk@insightr.com | insightr.com

Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
(eg) cost, ROAS & impression data integration
Additionally all ecommerce fields are managed through what is called “merchandising” –
YWA recommends tagging products with an SKU field, which through the merchandising
manger can be classified into detailed product dimensions.
Before the Yahoo acquisition, Indextools offered a full application management api (for
admin tasks). Post Yahoo integration the YWA application api has been disabled for new
customers – Yahoo are working on opening up the api to new customers.
Data Export Services GA offers a data export api that leverages the standard Google api authentification Before the Yahoo acquisition, Indextools offered a full data export api. Post Yahoo
methods making it easy to deploy for developers. The api contains more data flexibility integration the YWA export api has been disabled for new customers – Yahoo are
than the standard web reporting interface, in particular pathing data is available via the working on opening up the api to new customers.
api which is not available in the reporting interface.
Because of the open nature of GA a number of developers have used the api to build
applications on top of the GA api, including tools that provide sql like data querying
and Excel add-Insightr. We can expect to see a continued growth in GA application /
data management tools.
eCommerce Support GA uses a straightforward ecommerce data collection process that collects data only YWA makes ecommerce data collection quite simple from a coding point of view by
upon purchase completion, when data is collected the developer must code all requiring the use of an sku variable which is managed through a merchandising feature in
product properties (product sku, name, category) into a set of mandatory and optional the admin console allowing the sku to be classified into product properties (eg name,
fields; additionally a purchase variable is captured to record the sale. category, brand, colour etc) for detailed analysis.
Standard product reporting is available showing orders, revenue, tax, discount, units. Standard product reporting is available showing orders, revenue, tax, discount, units.
No cart analysis or cross sell analysis is offered. Detailed cart analysis is offered including add to cart functionality, as well as cross sell
analysis to identify related products to assist with product and merchandise promotion /
No pending sale or cancelled sale functionality is offered.
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
content management on the site.
YWA allows tracking of pending sales to reconcile back office data with YWA, without
having to worry about aborted sales showing in your sales reports.
YWATracker.setAction("PENDING_SALE");
This pending sale feature is great for businesses that have offline conversion processes
(eg financial services) – sales that are confirmed can be reconciled in the admin console.
Visualisation & data One of GA’s strengths is that the GA developers have been able to leverage some of The visualisation features of YWA are certainly not as pretty as those offered by YWA.
presentation the features from other Google tools to build into the user interface; these include However there are some features worth highlighting:
features taken from Google Finance, Google Maps and Google Trends – in the 5 years
In standard reports the charting feature offers a breakdown by day, week or month
since GA was made available there have been tremendous gains in ease of use of
depending on configuration of report, and offers four types of visualisation: pie, line,
visual reporting. One of the most interest tools is the GA Visualizer which allows a
column and bubble. For bubble, line and column it is possible to add 2 metrics to
time series analysis of multiple dimensions in the same tool. This is difficult for ‘average’
compare, and with column it is possible to add a 3rd metric through application of a
users to get the hang of, and from experience there are only a handful of reports
colour range to the columns (eg overlay entries with page views to just where visitors
where this tool adds value – particularly ecommerce and campaigns. Where it does
start their site experience. I wouldn’t recommend ever using the pie chart visualisation –
add value the visual nature makes it very easy to explain complex data. Unfortunately
it doesn’t really show very much.
visualizer reports cannot be exported from GA for presentation in (eg) powerpoint.
All metrics can be highlighted with a colour range filter (eg bounce rate higher than 70%
Line charts in standard reporting allow breakdown by day, week and month (and by
= RED, lower than 30% = GREEN). This feature can make it much easier to scan data to
hour for some reports), additionally two metrics can be compared in a chart and when
discover patterns and problem areas – especially useful in dashboarding.
segments are added to a report will also show up in the chart – making it easier for an
analyst to digest the data story.
Data is also visualised in data tables, with a user able to run pie charts of % of total
(percentage), replicate in-cell charting (performance) and compare against averages
(comparison); finally a detail view will show a sparkline chart.
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
Segmentation of Data Visit based segmentation only, unless custom variable is used to persist segment Designed for more advanced users, no pre-configured segments available.
property to visitor cookie.
Segments are created using drag and drop interface to select dimensions using AND
Pre-configured segments are very helpful, as they give a useful insight to how segments statements, properties of dimensions are edited using selection box or rules engine.
could be used in analysis.
Segments are added to a report as a new column showing segment data by metric
Segments are created using drag and drop interface using both metrics and dimensions
with simple AND OR statements, then properties of the metric or dimension are
selected using easy to configure rules engine.
Segments are added to a report as a new row, maximum of 4 segments can be
applied to any report (must include all “all visits” segment), and a maximum of 100
total segments per login email address can be created.
With the new “Intelligence” feature, Google now provides one click access to custom
segments that can be used to analyse specific problem areas with data (eg increased
visitors from a campaign)
Visitor profile analysis Currently GA does not connect directly to visitor profile reports, however in As YWA is connected to the Yahoo! visitor database, it is possible to analyse visitor
conjunction with Google Ad Planner basic profiles can be recognised, additionally GA behaviour by visitor data that Yahoo! stores (eg Age, Gender, Yahoo Interest
provides a benchmarking service to allow site owners to compare sites of similar size Categories).
and industry metrics for sites that allow data sharing.
This data is presented with a confidence level indicator (ie not every visitor is Yahoo
Through the use of custom dimensions (using visitor, session or page scope) it would registered).
be possible to capture visitor profile data for know visitor properties for segmentation
YWA provides a setMemberId(); property that allows visitor id’s to be passed to the
and analysis.
database for further breakdown and classification to be used in segments
Conversion / Goal GA allows 20 goals to be collected in a web profile (note GA allows up to 50 YWA allows up to 15 custom action tags, along with 5 standard action tags. Using the
“profiles” per account so the number of tracked goals can easily be extended with
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
tracking additional web profiles). Goals are reported 1x per visit. Goals are set based on either admin console managers are able to define an action as non-unique or unique.
a page view based filter or using a threshold filter based on time on site or pave vies /
YWA goals are set using the page level JavaScript.
visit metrics using a goal manager in the admin console.
GA also offers ecommerce reporting which captures product name, category & id
along with revenue data (plus tax and shipping by order). Ecommerce conversions can
be tracked multiple times per visit.
Attribution of campaigns to goals is last click, unless forced to first click through cookie
modification.
Calendar Events & None currently Every report can have a note (comment) attached. Additionally each visualisation can
Announcements have notes attached. Calendar events can be managed and added through the admin
interface, which will show up in reports.
Auto-alerts GA offers an alerts system that monitors data on an either automatic or user-selected Every report can have an alert setup based on criteria such as increase / decrease in
basis. The alerts are called “Intelligence” and are presented to a user in one of two value, percentage change. The alert can be sent to a user through email.
ways:
Firstly the alerts are presented in a dashboard, which highlights why the alert was
shown (based on variance of metric value) which then presents the user with an
option to create a visitor segment using one click for analysis purposes.
Secondly the alert can be sent via email, so the user does not need to constantly log
into GA to monitor data.
Path, Scenario, Funnel GA allows funnel visualization based on up to ten levels of a fixed funnel. These The YWA Scenario Analysis Interface allows you to define a series of steps that a visitor
analysis funnels are created when goals are setup (20 per profile). This analysis is only possible has to take in order to complete a transaction (sale, form completion etc.) so as to
using goals, not possible using ecommerce. evaluate the effectiveness of this process.
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Free Web Analytics Tool Evaluation
Comparison between Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics (features valid as of October 21, 2009)
Feature Description Google Analytics Yahoo Web Analytics
The GA reporting api exposes previous page and next page dimensions allowing YWA offers “Ad-hoc scenarios” (that allow you to research past visitor behaviour or to
deeper analysis to be carried outside of the GA web interface. test possible scenario steps) as well as “Pre-defined scenarios.
Based on the scenarios you define, it’s possible to drill down to visualise specific paths
that led to abandonment of a process.
This visualisation can be filtered by pre-defined segments or filtered using any dimensions
to create on the fly segments.
Custom Report Design GA offer a custom reporting interface that allows a user to create a custom report YWA actively recommends that all reports an analyst uses should be custom – out of
(based on certain limitations about metric / dimension relationships). The custom the box reporting by YWA might appear quite weak (eg showing only the page view
report builder replicates the standard GA report view, with the addition of dimension metric), but this belies the fact that one click from every ‘standard’ report is a custom
drill-down. report wizard allowing addition of multiple dimensions and metrics, and a pivoting
feature to group dimensions. When a saved report is modified the user is presented with
This allows a user to use multiple metrics in a tab based format, and to design the
an option to save and rename the report.
report drilldown properties through hierarchical dimensions. Custom reports can be
previewed as they are designed, a useful feature since some reports based on metric Custom report management is done using an interface that is familiar to anyone used to
combinations will not be as expected. working with pivot tables – metrics and dimensions are presented on the left menu and
a pivot view of the report is shown – the drag and drop interface makes designing the
report very straightforward.
Data Drilldown Custom reporting allows drill down through 5 dimensions. Custom reporting allows drill down through 8 dimensions.
Drill down analysis does not allow multiple dimensions to be analysed at the same Drill down analysis is done in-page by clicking on a + icon that drills down to the next
time (eg visitors from Europe or Asia by Campaign Medium). dimension. This makes data exploration very quick.
Such analysis can be carried out by using a combination of Custom Reporting and
Advanced Segments (using report filters to clean up data)
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