vBSEO LiveStats for Google Analytics
Posted on April 10th, 2009 by Gabriel Harper in Software & Scripts
Those tycoons over at vBSEO released a free Google Analytics widget for vBulletin users codenamed LiveStats. This free widget displays a JavaScript widget with comprehensive Website statistics from Google Analytics. I don’t plan on publishing all my traffic statistics, but they can be kept private and LiveStats gets definite kudos for using sparklines!
The LiveStats widget from vBSEO/Crawlability, Inc. displays comprehensive page specific and global site data from Google Analytics in a sharp looking JavaScript widget. The LiveStats for Google Analytics widget (as of version beta 2) is compatible with vBulletin only, but other CMS/blog software support is planned.
Check out the screenshots below to see what LiveStats widget looks like, or just hop over to vBSEO.com to see it in action (click the little “stats” button on the left).
LiveStats Screenshots (click to enlarge)
 LiveStats Page Statistics |
 LiveStats Global Site Statistics |
As you can see above, the vBSEO LiveStats widget provides a ton of very interesting data pairing with Google Analytics.
Most commercial sites should avoid sharing this data publicly, since it contains detailed and potentially sensitive traffic data and search engine statistics. Fortunately access can be controlled in the widget admin panel for usergroups. (Thanks to a helpful response from Crawlability, Inc. founder Juan Muriente that clarified this important subject.)
Different sparklines are shown for Page Stats and Global Stats in the LiveStats Analytics widget:
- Page Stats
- Pageviews
- Unique Pageviews
- Time on Page
- Bounce Rate
- % Exit
- $ Index
- Global Stats
- Visits
- Unique Visitors
- Pageviews
- Average Pageviews
- Time on Site
- Bounce Rate
- New Visits
In addition to the sparklines graphics and statistics data shown at the top, the widget also has several categories of extended site statistics for Page Stats and Global Stats:
- Page Stats
- All Traffic Sources
- Keywords
- User Defined
- Referring Pages
- Global Stats
- Keywords
- Referring Sites
- Search Engines
- Top Content
- Content By Title
- Top Landing Pages
- Top Exit Pages
- All Traffic Sources
LiveStats Plans and Release Status
As of the time of this post, LiveStats is on beta 2. The download is a straightforward vBulletin plugin. From the way they’re talking, vBulletin and Google Analytics are just the tip of the iceberg. Potential integration with Wordpress and mashups with social Web data like Twitter would make this tool useful for more than just vBulletin users.
It sounds like the basic version of this tool will remain free, but a commercial pro version will eventually be seen. The name LiveStats for Google Analytics is also apparently just a temporary title until a more suitable name is found.
Improving LiveStats
I’ll be testing out the free version on a few of my sites, but due to privacy concerns I don’t use Google Analytics except for research and experimentation. For this reason I’d be especially interested in seeing other data incorporated with the widget. However, I am looking forward to seeing my competition integrate LiveStats (if they leave the data publicly available). 
I can see LiveStats being a killer tool on the back-end if it integrates additional statistics data and provides an API of some kind. Then it’ll be a tool worth buying for a lot more commercial sites, and not just a freebie stuck in the realm of neat widgets for vBulletin users. This is still an early release of Crawlability’s LiveStats for Google Analytics widget, and so far it’s showing a lot of potential.
** Update: Just noticed the WP version is in progress, and support for SaaS implementations is being mentioned. TechWhack also mentions the new widget and upcoming platform support.
I can’t imagine adding support for Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. being that far off, unless LiveStats is tightly integrated with vBulletin code. Seems a generic implementation in PHP would work for most CMS and blog scripts. Working with CMS software on sites integrating a vBulletin CMS would be shoe-in for existing vBSEO/vBulletin users.
Hi, I'm Gabriel Harper, owner of 
April 10th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Than-you for the review Gabe!
Do note that in Beta 2 we’ve added the ability to create custom reports. So users are not limited to the default report set. Of course, the functionality is still a little crude (requires xml to be entered directly in the source code), but it is there, so anyone wanting to include reports that are meaningful to them, but not yet on the widget, can do so.
“Personally, I’ll test out the free version on a few of my sites, but never extensively and certainly never on a commercial site. However, I am looking forward to seeing my competition integrate LiveStats. ;)”
May I ask why?
*You* decide who has access to the widget via the usergroups management selector in the admin control panel. Additionally, the data is pulled *directly* from your site to google analytics (without going through us, or any other third party). So this data is viewable *to you only* and IMO there’s no reason why it couldn’t be used in a commercial website just as it can be used in a non-commercial one.
I’m also very excited about the WordPress version which is coming out very soon, with the current feature set, plus the enhancements we’ve already added in Beta3 (to be released shortly)
You are right in regards to the great potential of additional (useful) info/mashups within the widget. - We already have a few solid features in mind for the pro version. However, we are still seeking feedback from the community in this regard. Up till now, the feedback/recommendations on possible (again, useful) features, has been a little scarce.
Hopefully more ideas and feedback will start rolling in as we introduce newer builds, or as we hint the community on directions these new features can be taken.
Again, thanks for the review, and certainly, feelf free to post suggestions or feedback on things that can be improved, or better yet, stuff that can enhance your “analytics experience” via the widget.
Cheers,
Juan
April 11th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Hi Juan,
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading and taking the time to leave a very helpful response. It’s great to see your enthusiasm for the widget, and your corrections are vital ones. A few lines of the post have been revised to reflect your clarifications on privacy and hopefully avoid any confusion.
>> Personally, I’ll test out the free version on a few of my
>> sites, but never extensively and certainly never on a
>> commercial site. However, I am looking forward to seeing
>> my competition integrate LiveStats.
>
> May I ask why?
Since you pointed out that stats can be restricted to authorized users only, you are absolutely right that it adds no additional privacy concerns for commercial sites.
Unfortunately, agreeing to the Google Analytics TOS gives Google access to and freedom to use your data. I avoid Analytics for this reason. I imagine many other companies feel the same way. Which is why I’d love to see this widget concept work with other data sources.
The beta is already looking great, and the roadmap looks sweet too. There seems to be a lot of potential for ramping up the scope, but you’re probably already asking yourself which can of worms is worth opening.
Web analytics is a subject near to my heart, and I’m already thinking of a dozen ideas for LiveStats. Once I use the widget a little more I’ll have plenty of feedback for your though.