Points to consider when choosing analytics tools for SharePoint websites

Microsoft SharePoint is one of the most popular document management solutions used by thousands of companies to share information between customers and employees. As a marketer, you need to be aware of the fact that you need to find the patterns in the data so that you can avoid risks and find new business opportunities. Being able to identify business challenges and anomalies and the causes behind them can make or even break your organization. If you don’t have advanced statistical data, it can be difficult to understand what your users really need. To do this, you can use web analytics to generate reports for your SharePoint development environment.

SharePoint solutions are customizable, and custom applications can easily be built on top of the out-of-the-box tools. The use of analysis tools helps SharePoint websites to analyze the pattern and information that helps to attract the attention of users. It helps to track user interaction from various locations and use different devices to access any information on the site.

Google Analytics is a popular marketing analytics tool, but over the years, the product has focused more on advertiser-specific functions like remarketing, display network integration, attribution, etc. With SharePoint’s default site analytics, it’s difficult to track user click paths, segment users, and do the things that web analytics typically do. So if you’re willing to integrate analytics into your SharePoint website, here are some things to consider when looking for the best analytics.

Regular web analytics or dedicated SharePoint solution:

You can consider using a normal web analytics solution as they are much cheaper and easier to use. But, when it comes to intranet analytics, this may not be the best solution. Although you can configure your regular web analytics tool to suit your SharePoint website, you must also remember that your intranet space is not just about selling your products. The standard web analytics metrics will not apply to the SharePoint environment. Using a dedicated solution will help you track a wide range of actions and areas that will reveal how active your users are, such as visitor profiles, user activities, site search, goals, etc.

The version of SharePoint you are using:

This is very important and must be taken into account as there is no one-size-fits-all solution for SharePoint. Some of the native intranet analytics tools only support the latest version of SharePoint, while others may work only with the older ones. SharePoint 2013 and 2016 and Office 365 are all application-based solutions, while SharePoint 2010 uses a high-performance .wsp farm solution. The SharePoint analytics solution that is dedicated to working around this usage and is designed for the needs of your intranet software version.

JS Tracking vs. Log Analysis:

SharePoint analytics tools typically vary in many ways, and one method is used to collect visitor data. JavaScript is popular, simple, and effective. JavaScript tagging is also the most accurate, customizable, and comprehensive tracking method available and has become the ideal solution for anyone who wants to analyze and collect as much data as possible. But JS tracking isn’t right for everyone, as some entities may have to use less advanced tracking methods to comply with strict security regulations and other industry-based restrictions. This can be easily changed by web logs which also have some serious drawbacks. But it is possible to enrich the web logs with additional information about users and not capture any data that falls within the definition of PII.