Image
Top
Navigation
October 2, 2010

Chartbeat – Eavesdrop on Your Website Visitors

Chartbeat is a tool that offers businesses a way to find out what’s going on with their websites in real-time. With instant analytics tools and performance alerts, blogs and other publishing outlets can find out immediately when a post has gone viral and traffic is flooding in. With this knowledge in hand, editors can get to work writing follow up pieces to be published online while the article’s still hot. On the flip side, chartbeat also offers customizable SMSalerts that notify web publishers when their page loads have slowed down to the point that people are having a hard time logging on.

The way you use chartbeat will depend largely on what type of company you run. From major drug manufacturers to online publishers, the application’s tools and features are useful to a variety of different types of businesses. For online publishers in particular, the application offers a number of features to help drive traffic and respond quickly when changes are afoot. Once you’ve chosen an account and linked your site to the app, you can head to the chartbeat dashboard to see all the visitors coming to your site right now. On one central page, you can see the number of active visitors checking out your site, the top pages they’re clicking on, where they are coming from, and how engaged they are in the content they’re reading.

Publishers who sign up to receive chartbeat’s instant SMS and email alerts can find out fast when an article they’ve published is picking up steam, enabling them to react quickly by promoting the article or making updates to reflect more recent developments. The app also offers alerts that let publishers know when their site is down or when the page loading time has slowed to an unacceptable level. Instant text alerts are especially helpful for problems that occur in the middle of the night, when website employees and editors aren’t at work. For web publishers and businesses of all sizes, chartbeat is an efficient application that can help boost traffic to any online site.

Practical Uses:

  • Find out instantly if your website goes offline
  • See which websites are referring people to your site
  • Promote certain articles based on how much traffic they are bringing to your site
  • Get a text message alert if your site’s pages start loading slowly

Insider Tips:

  • Sign up for customizable SMS, iPhone, or email alerts
  • See which search terms are bringing people to your site
  • Use widgets to allow your visitors to see what’s hot right now
  • Get an email alert if your total number of visitors goes above a preset monthly max
  • Create separate accounts for each of your employees

What we liked:

  • Chartbeat offers analytics tools that operate in real-time
  • Email and text alerts can be customized in a number of ways
  • Chartbeat data can be shared between sites
  • View how engaged your readers are by seeing how many of them are commenting and leaving feedback

What we didn’t like:

  • Chartbeat is a more robust application than some smaller websites need

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: April 2009
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: New York, New York
  • Founded by: Billy Chasen
  • Web site: http://www.chartbeat.com

Costs:

  • Standard plan is $9.95/month
  • L plan is $49.95/month
  • XL plan is $99.95/month
  • XXL plan is $149.95/month

Submit a Comment

Posted By

Categories

Be Social