Implementing page analytics

There is a multitude of tools you can use to perform page analytics. In this book, we are going to look at the following two:

• Google Analytics
• Fathom Analytics

Google Analytics is the world's leader in page analytics. More than half of all websites on the web use this tool. One of the reasons for its popularity is its age as it has been around since 2005. When it was launched, there wasn't much competition in the analytics space. Another reason for its popularity is that it's free. It's important to remember that if you are using a free tool or site, it is often the case that your data is the product. If you are concerned about your privacy and that of your site visitors, then perhaps Fathom Analytics is a better choice.

Unlike Google, Fathom Analytics does not track personal data. For example, when a page view is logged, it only tells you it was visited, but not by who specifically. Fathom's script is cookie...