What’s New at Google Analytics

Google Analytics is our favorite web analytics tool. There are three new things going on there now.

First, there is a new section called “Search Engine Optimization” including Queries, Landing Pages, and Geographical Summary. This section can only be used if you have Webmaster Tools for your site.We’re going to explore this for a while and let you know the practical uses.

Second, there are now real-time results. These are in beta testing, and you can request early access. Josepha is testing this for us, and we’ll report on it once we’ve tried it for a while.

There is also a new premium service at Google Analytics. Word is this service will run $150,000 a year, so we plan to wait and let other people try it out first. If you’re using it, we’d love to hear about your experiences. Google says this new layer of service will offer more data, advanced analysis, and support.

Google Analytics has been in competition with Adobe’s Omniture, CrazyEgg (heatmapping), Clicky, and various other free and paid services. The lack of real time data has been the most common complaint among serious users, so this new feature should make a lot of people happy. Adding a paid tier seems like a logical next step.