This is guest post by Courtney Chowning

There are many different types of website analytic programs on the Internet today. Each one of them offers different features with different price tags. Google Analytics is undoubtedly one of the most popular website statistic programs currently available. For numerous reasons Google Analytics is also my web analytic program of choice.

Here are just a few of the reasons I think you should be using Google Analytics:

1. It’s free! There is no cost to use Google Analytics and you can monitor as many websites as you want under the same account.  Plus it’s super easy to allow someone else one time access to view your stats if necessary.
2. Set up goals. Within Google Analytics you can set up a goal to follow your product funnel and track where your customers leave the site in the purchasing process or how many customers actually follow through with the sale. Goals are technically just page views, but it allows you to view the data you want in a logical and meaningful way.
3. Link to your Adsense account. If you run Adsense campaigns you can easily link your Adsense account to your Analytics account in order to better under how well your ads are performing and the long term result they have on your website.
4. Site Overlay Map. With the site overlay map you can easily view which areas of your site gets the most clicks.  Is it the area above the fold?  Do links in your sidebar get clicked?  The Site overlay maps displays your site along with small boxes at every link telling you how many times that link has been clicked.  This is always a quick and visual way to see how your ads, affiliates links, or product links are converting.

From monitoring every aspect of your website’s traffic, visitor loyalty, site referrals, to keywords, Google Analytics provides everything you need to know about your readers and blog stats. Familiarizing yourself with Google Analytics and all that it can do will help you make the best decisions for your website and ultimately your readers.

I invite you to join me in a Google Analytics Workshop on August 30, 2010 where I will teach you how to use Google Analytics to help increase your readership and profits.