Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
The question should be do I use Google analytics or my own, like Webtrends, Webilizer, or Awstats etc... I think most would agree keeping your own visitor stats to yourself only and not in the hands of Google is perhaps the best business practice.
The less info google has on you the better.
Webtrends works great, however it can be pricey.
I would NEVER use anything related to any search engine if I do SEO, that sounds logic
I don't see the logic can you please elaborate.
The less info google has on you the better.
ACK. But they can get this information by other means, if we like it or not.
If they compare the Analytics data of enough sites with toolbar statistical traffic data and/or adsense traffic data of these sites, they then derive universal statistical factors 'T' or 'A', which they simply can apply on any toolbaar or adsense statistics of any other site to easily calculate these sites' real traffic data.
So, with this background in mind, it doesn't matter much if you use Analytics on your site or not. They already know your site's traffic data.
Kind regards,
R.
We have quite a few top 10 sites that use it and we have never had any issues. Its very helpful once you learn how to use it.
Google analytics V2 looks wonderful though, usability was the big downside in their previous version. They give you one of the best tools available for free.
There's been other reasons in the past, not usre if they still apply, including: slow reporting, slowness of the tracking code loading, inacurracies (missing visitors) compared to other solutions...
Also no one knows exactly how GA impacts rankings or PPC pricing and placement. As a business decision some may consider it risky to play a game without knowing the rules. Nothing is totally free...
Even fewer surfers I'd wager.
We look at bounce rate %'s for urls
And I know mine are very high since most visitors simply use our image pages as pure reference, many copy and leave and a small percentage through AdSense, it has never stopped us ranking #1 for all those thousands of images though.
YMMV:-)
I don't get it why people use external counters and third party hosted junk like this. Maybe some of them or their hosts are unable to set up server stats?
But if they can't set up server stats they could try selling some Burgers :)
I would NEVER use anything related to any search engine if I do SEO, that sounds logic.I would ALWAYS consider an SEs tools, as anything that helps me keep my site compliant with their TOS and guidelines can only possibly help me.
But if I were blackhearted, I would never use SE tools - that would be like asking a bank clerk to check your forged notes, wouldn't it? :)
Webalizer or Awstats are free and more exact than any external analytics solution because server based.
I don't get it why people use external counters and third party hosted junk like this. Maybe some of them or their hosts are unable to set up server stats?But if they can't set up server stats they could try selling some Burgers :)
Server based stats are not 100% accurate either.
Also, in many cases people are not too concerned about the accuracy of results as long as the discrepency is consistent. Trends are important in web analytics.
Third party solutions are easy to implement and use, especially when IT resources are limited. In my current job we use Web Trends and stats are incomplete because it's a low priority IT application. At my previous job I used IndexTools, which I prefer. If I didn't understand something I would call them up and get an answer there and then. When I have an issue with Web Trends I have to submit a ticket and wait a week for IT to respond - they're obviously busy flippin' 'em burgers
I would NEVER use anything related to any search engine if I do SEO, that sounds logicI don't see the logic can you please elaborate.
- I'm adding one word so you see the logic: ...if I do [blackhat] seo...
You're giving Google access to all your log files, organic and PPC.
In unrelated news, Google offers your competitors who spend a bunch on PPC a custom account review. Google's account rep is thinking 'if only I had access to a wealth of info on long tail keywords in that industry, what keywords convert, etc. That would allow me to make this high paying advertiser really happy.'. If only they had that information.
Oh wait. They do. You just gave it to them in return for 'free' analytics.
People are making the choice to give Google, a data mining company, basically full access to all their web data, and allowing them to do anything they want with that data. When there are plenty of viable alternatives out there for a few hundred dollars. Me? I'm not giving someone access to my log files just for a couple of hundred dollars.
Man you got that right. Just say no.
We'll drop Analytics if there's evidence that our information is directly funding our competitors AdWords activities!
Google paid a lot for the package. It was the most expensive stats package on the internet. Now they're giving it away. They're not a charity so you HAVE to assume that they are using the info to make a profit off their investment. That's just business.
Their is a case where using Analytics could help ranking. If you are sure your bounce rate is low and most visitors stay more than 5 or 10 minutes constantly, you could get an improvement in ranking.
If they weren't planning on using it, a simple privacy policy note would seem an obvious thing, no?
What would you do if your company had that data, the people that provided that data had agreed to allow you to use that data however they see fit, and someone spending $300K a month asks for some help in their sector?
Or, they're just providing the analytics for free because it's a nice thing to do.
Not a choice I'm going to risk when I can buy decent analysis software for $500 or so.
However it looks like that has changed at some point. Paragraph 6 of the official TOS now states that they will NOT share information with 3rd parties
[google.com...]
