I have always used Google Analytics to keep track of my web statistics (along with some brief free trials of other solutions) but after a rumor began making its way around SEOs that Google may be using Google Analytics along with other Google services to determine your page rank, I’ve been looking for a viable alternative, just for kicks. I probably wont give up Google analytics completely – I’m not one for conspiracy theories – but if a comparable, or better free solution is available, I want to know about it.
A quick search led me to Piwik.org, where I was intrigued by their mission: to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics.
I’ve only been using Piwik for about 24 hours now, so I don’t have the data to give a useful opinion about the quality of their analytics, but I will say that I find it to have a cleaner, and yes, a more intuitive interface than Google Analytics. The interface is very similar to the WordPress Admin interface, to which I am becoming more and more partial.
How to Install Piwik
I had an extremely difficult time finding installation instructions for Piwik on the Piwik.org website, and ended up piecing the information I needed from blog comments around the web. The home page makes it sound so simple – “just download the zip file, upload the contents, and open your web browser” but I didn’t understand this:
What you need to know before installing Piwik:
I assumed that I would be including some JavaScript code to my header or at the end of the <body> tag in my HTML code, and then I would be tracking it on Piwik’s site. Instead, it is a PHP/MySQL script that you will want to install in a subdomain or folder under your main domain – ex. analytics.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com/analytics.
From there, you can manage as many websites as you want, and you own all of your traffic data for all of your websites, as opposed to storing that data with Google or another analytics company.
Installation:
Once that is understood, the limited directions on their website make sense: you just download the .zip download file available from their home page, unzip the contents, upload it to your subdomain or folder, and then navigate there with your browser.
You will need to set up a MySQL database before filling out the database information during setup, but other than that (if my memory serves me well), Piwik is ready for setup.
Limitations of Piwik
Edit: Piwik is still in beta, so issues like these are probably being addressed.
I will probably add to this later, or write a new post because, as I mentioned earlier, I have only been using Piwik for a day or so; but here are the limitations I see as a brand new user:
- No way to track conversions. I’ll keep using GA for this.
- Can’t identify users by IP address – GA doesn’t do this either, but ever since I my free Get Clicky trial ran out I’ve missed having the ability to NOT track my visits from my IP at home and at work.
- Visitor location and network: appears to be limited to displaying the country the users are from. No city or regional maps and so far Piwik can’t identify any network providers, although GA and Get Clicky can.
Piwik Strengths
- Great looking, intuitive interface
- Widgetized – users can move and rearrange widgets on every page
- Privacy – all analytics data is kept in your local database
- Data display - you can choose to see the data in a pie chart, vertical bar graph, table, line graph, or tag cloud – according to your preference.
- Customizable - it is stored on your local machine so if you know a little PHP you can modify the interface and reporting any way you want.
- Lightweight – mainly because it is stored on your local server, so there are no requests for ga.js on Google servers (which brings up the point that it is a good idea for GA users to store ga.js locally)
More about Piwik after I’ve had a chance to use it for an extended period of time…
