88% website has GA - Does it mean new rules for SEO?

[AjiNIMC]

There are 100s of pages on Google Ranking Algorithms, is it going to change its orbit now?
[webmasterworld.com...] says "Study Shows Google Tracker on 88% of Web Domains".

If the study is true then Google knows a lot about User Behavior on the web esp your site. So now Google knows whether Site A is more satisfying for Keyword XYZ or Site B.

Isn't that the only credible and non-manipulative parameter for long term ranking? Earlier Google might be guessing about user experience of a site based on data collected by toolbars, adsense, GA etc .. now they can clearly define user experience in terms of number using GA stats for various sites that are worthy of ranking (based on other parameters like Link etc).

Is it going to change the whole of SEO? I support the move, it will atleast bring more honor to people who believe in making quality web products and web services than the ones spending hours of link building.

Regards,
AjiNIMC

[Robert Charlton]

Just for clarification, though the thread referenced is titled "Study Shows Google Tracker on 88% of Web Domains," the tracker(s) referred to are not simply Google Analytics.

The NYT news story has a slightly different title...

Google Is Top Tracker of Surfers in Study [bits.blogs.nytimes.com]

...but it's not exactly clear what the phrase "the Google tracker" means in this NYT note: "Clarifying in fifth paragraph that the study found the Google tracker on 88 percent of Web domains, not sites."

The story discusses all Google tracking properties, not just Google Analytics, and the news is both better and worse...

Google Analytics, a free product that allows online publishers to gather statistics about visitors to their sites, was used on 81 of the top 100 sites. Cookies from the advertising company DoubleClick, which is owned by Google, were present on 70 of those sites. When combining trackers from those two services, Google had a presence on 92 of the top 100 sites.

As noted in the post, Google also has Toolbar information, etc.

All this said, though, while much of this information might be useful in tracking user behavior for advertising, etc, much of it may or may not relate to SEO.

I'm not taking any position pro or con with regard to the question asked... just trying to clarify several points.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:05 pm (utc) on June 9, 2009]

[AjiNIMC]

Thanks Robert, my point was about the amount of information Google has about websites (over 80% of web). Now if Google knows the user experience on a set of websites it can judge better about the quality of user experience provided by the websites. Isn't long term ranking also about user experience on site?

Just a viewpoint that user experience is going to be even more important day by day from SEs perspective.