There are a significant number of web analytics packages on the market today. But, when Google entered the market about a year ago through their purchase of Urchin, they changed the face of the game by offering a relatively robust stats package at zero cost (it’s in some ways similar to how Google used Gmail’s extremely large storage capacity to make Hotmail and Yahoo!’s premium e-mail offerings obsolete).

Besides the fact that it is free and tracks an extensive number of metrics, Google Analytics makes a lot of sense if you are using AdWords because it integrates nicely with it.

I do want to note that here at Viget Labs we are big fans of WebSideStory’s HBX Analytics package (which costs money) and have a significant number of clients that we help leverage it. HBX allows you to dig a little deeper and, from our perspective, offers the ability to segment audience a bit more finely (and more easily). Still, if you just want to get up and running with a stats package - almost as a taste test for learning what web analytics is all about - Google Analytics is a great place to start.

Below follow a couple of resources:

Conversion University

http://www.google.com/analytics/conversionuniversity.html

Google Analytics Blog

http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Help

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/