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This month I’ve been playing around with a bunch of different web analytics tools. As Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0, states “Picking the right set of tools might be just as important as picking your friends: pick the wrong one, and it might take a long time to recover.” As your business searches for the best tools here’s the top 5 I have experimented with this month:

1) Get Clicky: Although I am an avid Google Analytics user, I have been a little frustrated with how slow it is to update metrics. Get Clicky helped me solve this problem by offering Real Time Web Analytics, so I can actually monitor web traffic as it comes in. Monitoring in real time can give your business a more accurate perception of consumer behavior on your website or blog.

2) Quantcast: I recently used this tool for a “Business Startups” project I did for my MBA program. Our project is to start a rock climbing gym, and we were looking to gather data to build an accurate customer profile. We used Quantcast to analyze web traffic from competitor’s rock gyms, and determine a more accurate picture of our target market.

3) Lytiks: The first thing that struck me about this product was not it’s super slick interface, easy to use API, and multi-level functionality. It was the customer service. I had a little trouble loading the embedding code onto my Tumblr blog, so I tweeted my question out. Within minutes The President @ngoggans tweeted me offering to help. After that I was quickly tweeted by @lytiks. Keep in mind, this product is FREE…

4) Twittercounter: I first heard about this tool from Huspot’s Social Media Scientist Dan Zarrella’s “Social Media Marketing Book.” For those businesses that are serious about using Twitter, this tool is a must. The FREE features are a little limited, however, it still provides useful metrics and graphs to show you an accurate account of what’s how your Twitter account’s engagement.

5) Compete: “Keep your enemies closer.” Web analytics isn’t just about looking at your own sites activity; you have to look at your competition as well. Compete offers an easy way to see how your website or blog is stacking up against the competition. See where your company is lagging, and use that data to make strategic changes to your business.