In the world of Web Development, marketing, ad click-through rates, hits, and every other stat we can conjure up; what site can do without some good Web stats. Web stats can be an important tool to track what works, and what doesn't. Where people are going on your site. How to design your site around the majority of your audience using the language, browser, resolution, and other various details that help you to gather information on your audience.

Web stats can be used to pitch clients, or upper level management to peruse certain campaigns or features if the stats will show it works. In any event stats are a crucial part of a fit Web site. So let's take a look at two free services that do a great job, and are very easy to setup.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the most robust stats software I have come across so far that is not charging for their services. Using quite a few great graphing tools, and some locational maps as to where your hits are coming from is only the start with Google Analytics. It also features a lot of goal tracking options for your marketing campaigns. Analytics is definitely for a hardcore statistics guru as some of the features are pretty in depth, and require some decent knowledge as to what you are doing.

Analytics is installable to your Web site by simply adding the script code that you will be asked to add during the sign up process, and you are up and running. Your first stats will start rolling in within 24 hours, possibly sooner.

FeedBurner

FeedBurner is well known as a RSS/ATOM feed publishing service. They maintain stats on how many people access (subscribe) your feed as well as what items they are looking at. They can also add "flare" to your feed. Links that allow readers to publish the content to Digg.com, or bookmark the link using Del.icio.us. There are loads of options so if you use FeedBurner for nothing else you should be using it for your feed.

Recently FeedBurner has added Site Stats to their arsenal of Web tools. I went ahead and got hooked up with the free service to give it a run and must say I have been rather impressed. Feedburner's approach to really all your data is to show you simple numbers that are easy to understand and quick to interpret. They have done this well when it comes to their Site Stats.

The FeedBurner Dashboard greets you cooly with something like TODAY: 184 visitors (57.9% new), 42.1% came directly, 5.3% from searches, 2.6% from other sites. There are obviously more the the stats as you work your way into the tool, but I will leave that up to you.

Feedburner Stats are also installed using a small script that you need to embedded on your pages at the time of registration. Feedburner updates much more often then Google Analytics, so if you are interested in getting stats quickly and always being up to date this might be your software. Then again you might be truley nerdy like myself and run them both. Either way, they are both very solid.