Google Analytics vs. Urchin 6 vs. Urchin 5
Written by Benjamin Mangold
Over the last few weeks I have been consulting with large companies on using Google Analytics for enterprise. I have been asked about the differences between Google Analytics and Urchin on a couple of occasions during these workshops, so this post is all about the differences. I have decided to include Urchin 5 in this comparison because a lot of people use Urchin 5 because it is provided by their hosting companies.
Brett Crosby on Urchin
"Urchin Software is a downloadable software product which makes it appealing to organizations with restrictive data policies or those wishing to analyze firewall-protected content, such as an internal company network."Urchin is also useful for those who want to perform ad-hoc historical log processing, who want to store their web analytics on local servers, hosting providers wishing to provide a value-added analytics service, and those requiring third-part audits." Brett Crosby, Google Analytics Group Product Marketing Manager
Compare, compare, compare
Here are the key features compared...| Feature | Google Analytics | Urchin 6 | Urchin 5 |
| Install and manage on your own server |  |  | |
| Hosted and maintained by Google | | | |
| Reprocess historical data (from logfiles) | | | |
| Track content behind firewall | | | |
| Track search engine robots/spiders | | | |
| Goal tracking | | | Add-on |
| Campaign tracking | | | Add-on |
| Automatic Google AdWords tracking | | | |
| E-commerce reports | | | Add-on |
Break the firewall
One of the key differences between Google Analytics and Urchin, is that Urchin is installed on your own server, which allows you to track content that cannot be tracked by Google Analytics, for example a company intranet.Google Analytics rocks Google AdWords
When it comes to tracking your Google AdWords campaigns, Google Analytics is your answer!Google Analytics is a critical tool if you are running Google AdWords campaigns, once you have linked your accounts you have access to reports that are not available within Urchin. These reports provide incredible insights into the success of your campaigns and where improvements can be achieved.
- Auto-tagging makes tracking easy (apologies to Avinash)
- See if your Ads are actually making you money
- Compare the success of Ad variations
- Compare other campaigns to Google AdWords
- See your best Ad positions on Google.com
- Understand the engagement of your paid visitors
- Segment and compare your data to site goals and e-commerce reports
Labels: Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Urchin 6
2 Comments:
You can also run both of these products together with a single piece of javascript.... which is pretty nice and worth doing if you are considering Urchin.
Thanks for the comment Brett.
For those of you using the GA.JS Google Analytics Tracking Code you can modify the tracking code to simultaneously log data to Google Analytics and Urchin:
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ?
"https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost +
"google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setLocalRemoteServerMode();
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>
You can also modify the URCHIN.JS Google Analytics Tracking Code as follows:
<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-XXXXXX-X";
_userv = 2;
urchinTracker();
</script>
(You must remove utm.js from your pages.)
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