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Welcome to the second in my series of ‘win at web analytics’ posts - designed to give some true insights into successful web analytics. This time, I focus on one of the fastest growing trends online. Website video recording. And no, not the kind you see on YouTube…

Did you know that can now easily get a complete visual reply of your website visitor’s exact actions without even using a camera? Yes, its true folks. You can see exactly where they move the mouse. Where they pause. How quick they click around your site. Where they give up on your web signup forms. How far they scroll down your pages. How long it takes them to use your site search. Every motivation. Every obstacle.

And let me tell you. Its fascinating. I set up videos to record on some of my websites, and its just amazing watching how people interact with your website. And you will be in for a surpise just how people browse your website - its probably nothing like you think they do.

But whats the real purpose of this type of tool? Other than for voyeuristic tendencies? Well, its great for removing the guesswork and gaining the all-important ’customer voice’, and reveals tremendous actionable insight into just ‘what’ visitors do on your website, and therefore, usually ‘why’. Then you can use these insights to improve the usability of your website, thus making your visitors even happier - hopefully translating into more repeat visits, more products bought, more clients supported, or more articles read.

And no clickstream web analytics data is ever going to show you the visitors experience through their eyes. And best of all, there is a free/pretty cheap option to get started. Clicktale have been around for a little while now, and i’m surprised they haven’t got more attention. Their service is wonderful, and has a free version that lets you record sample visits on your website. And prices start at only $19 for 100 web video recordings. Thats more than enough insight to get started with.

And theres even better news - it requires no technical understanding or advanced installation to use this tool. All you need to add is just a few simple Javascript lines to your page footer and you are up and running.

And an even more powerful web recording solution is offered by TeaLeaf. And this will blow your mind. You can tie all kinds of metrics to your videos, and set up KPIs and events based on different types of visitor video outcomes, search these, and even set up alerts. This is particularly great for ecommerce websites, where undiagnosed obstacles can mean the difference between a sale or an unhappy website visitor.

I strongly suggest that any company serious about its web analytics strategy should start using a service like this to complement their clickstream, surveying and testing strategies. Go ahead. Try the free version of ClickTale. You will fall in love… and then immediately want to start using TeaLeaf. You will wonder how you ever did web analytics without it. Lets start making this an industry analytics tool standard! Its long overdue if you ask me…