Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

My sites focus on client self-service and lead generation. And, believe it or not, we don't use cookies for tracking visitors. The sites were somewhat neglected before I arrived several months ago and there was no one that planned Web-based marketing activity. For my situation I have found the click to and from report of Urchin to be useful in understanding visitor response to a variety of "proof of concept" changes to navigation and the addition of specific topics. For example, if we publish a piece of information with a specific target audience, I can see the proportional use of each path to that information.
I'm also using the search keyword report in working with my subject matter experts to identify "missing" search referrals. That will help the writers include the necessary words as the content is updated.
Neither tool can help with the "unknown" group of visitors. Their IP addresses can't be traced to a country. You'll need to use other techniques to get that information.
Regardless of which tool you decide, remember that the specific numbers are not important. Changes in the numbers are the key. That's why I don't feel a need to track any specific visitor. Knowing that 30% entered the site at that page (most likely a search referral that can be correlated to the search strings), 50% clicked through, and 25% exited the site from that page tells me if I made my goal.

I use Clicktracks web analytics software and find it quite flexible and powerful. I can download or import my client's raw logs or have them sign up for hosted version. I can track pretty much anything down to individual keyword activity, page visits, and even down to what keywords and sites generated leads. I use it extensively with my PPC accounts. I can track each category of keywords on any account and even down to the keyword itself. It helps me find a lot of negative keywords that I don't want my ads to appear on. I have even caught some click fraud with suspicious activity I would not have caught with other stats programs. It's very versatile where I can export to Excel or PDF quite easily - I use this feature to put my client's reports together. It works very well with dynamic sites and quite easy to use. It's also very reasonably priced - I use the lowest Desktop version and still get a ton of mileage out of it. Sometimes all the bells and whistles on some software is not worth the trouble or price but with clicktracks, it's there if you need it.