Does Removing Google Analytics Help Your Conversion Rates?

[samwest]

During the usual zombie talk and between August SERP changes discussions, a few members who were long time lurkers popped their heads up and started suggesting that everyone with zombie traffic try removing Google Analytics tracking code and removing Adsense Ads, your webmaster account and everything Google. You are also advise to block moz and ahrefs in you .htaccess. Seems like a bad joke, but they argue that Google is using our own traffic data to plot evil schemes to load their pockets. So, what's your take on what even I consider to be intentional misinformation or Google paranoia. Hopefully this post will offload the discussion to a side topic rather than the monthly SERP changes hangout. Feel free to share.

[adamxcl]

I think removing it would have at least a tiny little impact for the better just because of speed and hang ups. My site was slower with Analytics, Adsense, whatever outside service. And once in a while those things hang up. Analytics was the worst....."waiting for". Take every piece of G crap off your site for a test and see how it performs. But of course, we need a lot of that crap...or maybe find a better alternative.

I have been to museums and science centers three times in the past 18 months where all the displays were blank with just a waiting for Google Analytics in the corner of the screen. Great ticket value at those places when we couldn't use the screens or see experiments.

[bakedjake]

That's not the same argument other people in the thread are making.

You are making a technical argument. Sure, if your market is people on sat phones and this stuff is an issue and you've already done all the other speed and media optimizations, ok, you're an edge case and it's believable. It's not a situation I think worth optimizing for (say) a US e-commerce business selling to the mainstream. You may disagree and run server side analytics instead. I appreciate that argument. To support it, you could argue that Google itself doesn't run GA on search result pages and the homepage but they do nearly everywhere else across their websites. Is that for performance reasons?

But the conspiracy theory stuff is garbage, and "bad analytics implementation by science museums" is not a reason to recommend people stop running GA!

[edited by: bakedjake at 5:45 pm (utc) on Aug 19, 2016]

[aristotle]

The definite "YES" answer to this happened when Google bumped everyone's Adwords Pay Per Click costs from 10 cents to over $1 and more. In this particular case, it DID NOT MATTER that you specifically had or did not have Analytics installed,
Google went by the data collected from your competitors.

You must have mis-read what I wrote. I haven't said anywhere that having Analytics mattered. In fact I've been arguing the opposite- that it has no effect at all on rankings or traffic. As for Adwords, I haven't said anything about it in this thread.

[smilie]

>>@aristotle, no problem,

>> @SimonH: change your payment complete page to only include the GA completed conversion code for 1 in 10 transactions, i.e. trick GA into thinking you have far fewer sales than you do.

--
I do this already and it is a must. I don't provide Google with order $ amounts or any other order-related info for that matter. You need to treat this as "anything you provide Google can AND WILL be used against you to make Google more money". Certainly Google is not seeing the orders we take internally over the phone. They REPEATEDLY asked us for this information in a casual, and in a sleazy salesman kinda way ("what you don't have it integrated? you don't know how etc." - been told to go pound sand right there). Which means they've been told internally that they need this from merchants.
--

>> @bakedjake: Nope. I don't need to remove what is probably the single most used piece of JS in the world

I get it , you make blank statements about something you have no actual experience. Just because it's used alot doesn't mean YOU understand how it is used and for what purpose.

I provided you with reason, which you ignored in a dismissing kind of way. Which tells me that you need to start understanding business side of Google better, and not what they publish via their big PR machine. Because de fatco Google is a competitor of everyone here. "The definite "YES" answer to this happened when Google bumped everyone's Adwords Pay Per Click costs from 10 cents to over $1 and more."

I don't need my PPC to suddenly go $10/click because Google big data mining geeks saw several big orders that we closed. Big orders that are needed to offset loses we incur in PPC already paying $1+ /click. The situation can be made worse for us very easily via "free" Analytics conversion data , and I am not in liberty to provide that to Google, even if "it is the most used piece of JS".

[bakedjake]

Which tells me that you need to start understanding business side of Google better, and not what they publish via their big PR machine.

This might be the first time I've been called a Google apologist.

you make blank statements about something you have no actual experience

You're right. Good luck to you.

[glakes]

If the general consensus is that removing GA or blocking Chrome users will have no impact on conversions, we are right back where we started. Google is simply draining the well as dry as they can.

[buckworks]

draining the well as dry as they can

That doesn't match my experience.

Google doesn't make money from "dry wells" but from advertisers whose AdWords campaigns are profitable. Those are the folks who will keep spending over the long term.

[ecommerceprofit]

Part of me thinks this is just an algorithm glitch and part of me just has to wonder about this hood welded shut theory. The depressing "theory" reminds me of the movie "The Big Short" ...the bonds are AAA rated and everyone is protecting the rating agencies.

The press (being other SEO blogs) and fan boys just don't want to dig deeper. They should be covering this topic and asking Google to really get in the trenches with webmasters to figure this serious problem out. Perhaps Google is just too full of itself to settle this once and for all. I still think it's an algorithm glitch but my mind wanders due to their snobbish attitude. John Mueller has not followed through and the Google sales dept just tells everyone to increase their bids.

[keyplyr]

Does Removing Google Analytics Help Your Conversion Rates?

I used GA for a couple years. I often saw the page load hang up waiting for the remote GA code to implement (much like Adsense does.)

Frustrated, I eventually removed the GA code from all pages and saw an immediate improvement with page load times. Since that event, I've seen more traffic, improved stickiness and more conversations in both Adsense and my other products.

[samwest]

For me it's worked out as follows: When I removed GA, the site instantly tanked and sales stopped cold. Can't be sure 100% if it was pure coincidence or an actual effect. Put GA back and almost instantly the traffic returned however....weekly totals are definitely throttled in some way. Week to week the variation on total conversions is +/- 1. How do they do that. In previous years, natural patterns were the norm, now it appears strictly controlled in some clever way....at least from where I'm sitting. In the end, I'd rather have something than nothing...but that's selling out and knuckling under.

[smilie]

@ecommerceprofit

Good observations. I actually had a privilege of yelling at Google Adwords sales rep - and this was a sleazy one, not those bright inexperienced college kids that you normally get that usually try to help. I guess they rotate sales and they have a team that tries to sell what Google wants. I don't bother yelling at kids, but a sleazy salesman is someone who deserves it, because , like Google themselves, he's also full of himself and his abilities and needs to be brought back to the reality.

>> samwest: Week to week the variation on total conversions is +/- 1

I guess I have to spell it out. Let me repeat.

DON'T SHOW GOOGLE CONVERSION NUMBERS

This is where Google is looking to get themselves piece of YOUR pie, or sell your converting visitors to someone via Adwords for higher $. Don't fool yourself, they do it NOW.

G packages those visitors into "people that ordered X" , and next time this visitor is looking for similar products they get sold via broad match to highest Adwords bidders. And you get zombies, "people who look for X but never ordered".

They are stealing your converting customers and reselling them.

[buckworks]

I often saw the page load hang up waiting for the remote GA code to implement

I often put my GA and other bottom-of-page scripts in a div that's 1 pixel in height or else positioned off-screen. My theory is that that lets the visible page layout flow as it needs to even if some scripts are slow to come in.

[keyplyr]

I often put my GA and other bottom-of-page scripts in a div that's 1 pixel in height or else positioned off-screen. My theory is that that lets the visible page layout flow as it needs to even if some scripts are slow to come in.

As do I. The page would still hangs-up often, even though the upper content is readable.

Not so bad on desktop but worse results on mobile devices. Google weblight replaces slow mobile pages. Some apps will cache your images and/or reduce quality to load faster if your site is slow. AMP pages are laying in wait to jump ahead of slower pages in the mobile SERP.

I guess I'm jaded when in comes to GA. I never saw a benefit that would justify the downside. I just use raw logs and run a couple scripts to process the data.

My point is a slow loading page looses visitors, thus loosing conversions.

[Nutterum]

Why do you put GA at the bottom? This will cause it to not collect 100% of the data. Often it can collect 80% or less, depending on your overall site speed. Sure if you are on a shared $3 hosting and have a slow website to begin with I can see the reason, but I rarely ever see GA throttling pagespeed what-so-ever. (esp. compared to other "personalization" scripts like heatmaps, layout changers and the likes).

Also, I removed GA on a small dental website I run. The owner did not mind, so I took the opportunity. I can't see any changes in the past two days. (granted I am not good at number-crunching log data). In my eyes this GA conspiracy thing has little to no ground. Maybe on the grand scheme of things it does help RankBrain or whatever to feed on more data, but I doubt they use it as easy way to forcefeed big advertisers with paying customers. If they do that, there would be far more businesses and SEO people in this forum right now, tearing their lungs out from screaming that Google is scamming them.

[keyplyr]

@Nutterum - putting GA code at bottom does not "cause it to not collect 100% of the data."

While you may not see the speed hit, your visitors might. And it does not require "shared $3 hosting." I see it all the time on various sites.

Any time your page has to wait on 3rd party remote scripting to load, there will always be a hit to performance. So it comes down to a compromise. Is it worth the cost. For me it wasn't. YMMV.

[toidi]

^ exactly - so I think we can safely assume that the advice from Dooku is doodie.

This whole thread and most of the comments have totally missed what Dooku actually was saying. He was saying that with ga on his site, g could find customers that he generated offline or from other marketing and later divert them to a different site. Far fetched? Maybe. Out of the realm of possibilities? No.

i find this cocept interesting because i spend a lot of money on marketing to send people to my site and don't want them stolen by some code that does nothing for me. I have not used ga in probably 10 years.

[AussieWebmaster]

the only direct way I think this could be the case is the impact GA has on page load - maybe given increase in mobile searches the load speed impacts bounces etc and thus decreases conversion rates

[head_dunce]

Pulled GA on Aug 9th
Biggest spike in crawl I can remember on the site in over 10 years on Aug 15th
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I don't know, but they seem to be correlated. If they are, it would seem GA is tied to the SERP's.

[Dooku]

Ok, I am going to repeat myself in this thread also: REMOVE GA from your websites, do NOT use Chrome or anything else that google uses and can track your visitors and conversions........and next time please purchase a NON-android phone people! :-)

We can keep debating all these conspiracy theories all day long if and how google controls the traffic, but that is not really relevant. Only look at what IS REALLY happening and since the last 12 months I have seen more than enough evidence. Ditch google and concentrate on BING, Yahoo and other sources(advertising networks)

None of my websites were heavily impacted when I removed "google" and any and all losses have been compensated fairly quickly by doing the above mentioned actions. Initially it might be scary but stick to it. Some member mentioned that all traffic disappeared after removing GA, which is NOT normal(please analyze your website carefully and compare with similar websites because there will be another cause for this).

Please remember google makes money from free commodities which YOU give them. As website owners you have more power and control than you think. Its a numbers game: when enough webmasters ditch GA and chrome google will start to feel this. Like when one of the main characters in the "The Day the Earth stopped Turning" said "Only at the brink of destruction....." that is when google will change and treat their customers fairly. Unfortunately google is a company with an utterly despicable policy in favor of their own profit and against their customers.

So, do not complain at the coffee machine amongst your colleagues......but tell it to your Boss (G).

[aristotle]

It doesn't make sense to block Chrome. You would be shutting out more than 30% of your visitors, some of whom could be potential customers.

Blocking Chrome would be like shooting yourself in the foot.

[Dooku]

"Blocking Chrome would be like shooting yourself in the foot"
@ aristotle I will try and expand on this some more. Remember when google was driving around with the network wifi scanner hardware in their google streetmap cars? Do you think that was by accident as google claimed? Yeah...right, you first need to install that hardware in ALL of the google streetmap cars, then program and setup that hardware for it's specific purpose.....by accident? What does google gain by scanning your actual mac address of your adsl/cable modem? Well, easy that is the best and most accurate way of pinpointing WHO exactly you are, that's it!

Because currently the most used method through other options like Chrome and GA is that google collects specific set of data like pc operating system, brand and version number of web browser, browser agent type, screen resolution etc...etc...
So when you have a specific list of these data for a person you can group them into sets of for example 5000 or 2000 or whatever that have the same specific characteristics. To most people this will look like garbled info but to a big-data specialist like google the info in those groups is gold. But the ultimate wet dream for a company like google is to pinpoint exactly who you are by scanning your home modem(wifi) which fortunately was prohibited right after the european commission discovered this illegal practice.

So what does this mean? Yes, google can collect info from visitors using chrome and control them more easily. But they still need to connect their interests with your website when they are searching for your product and off course google will send them to where they make the most profit if they control that visitor AND YOU(webmaster). But when you ditch GA and chrome and whatever, it becomes more difficult. Because google has the key(the visitor) but you(the lock) is gone.......
Now you try and think all the possible scenario's what would happen if a large number of people would do this?
Why do you even think google has created all these products like GA, Adsense, Adwords, Chrome, Andoid, google-Glass, Fuchsia OS, etc...etc.........and I forget the list of other products through the years that were pulled by google as soon as they noticed they did not get enough return from them.

Some times I think its like some people keep finding excuses not to make it difficult for google and keep the status quo.......

[aristotle]

Dooku -- I agree that blocking Chrome would deprive Google of a lot of information about your site. But in most cases you would be depriving yourself of more than 30% of your sales.

Some members here have said that they get a lot of their sales through Amazon. Most likely more than 30% of the visitors who come from Amazon use Chrome. By blocking Chrome, they would lose those sales.

Other members have said that they get a lot of their traffic from Adwords. Most likely more than 30% of the visitors from Adwords clicks use Chrome. What will they think when they click an Adwords ad and immediately see a message telling them that they have been blocked from your site?

Once again, I say that it makes no sense to block Chrome.

[NickMNS]

@Dooku Lets imagine that what you are saying is true (I don't agree but for the sake of argument). Given Google's domination of the market, one person or a small group of people blocking and not using Google products will have no effect. Or, it may have the exact opposite effect of what you had hoped. Google will put you in the bucket labeled "No profit to be made here, Google Hater" and then send your share of the traffic to sites in the bucket labeled "Google Lover, True Sucker, Big Profits are here!".

Then the question becomes what are the alternatives? Switch from Android, to IOS. Do you think Apple doesn't track user activity? Use Bing, because Microsoft never tracks user activities (sarcasm)! In fact you can't even use the Internet at all, because your ISP is probably selling surfing your history to advertisers and other data brokers.

The only way to be really sure, is to sell your goods from a brick and mortar store cash only and using an abacus as a cash register.

I think some people need to loosen the straps on their tin foil hats, they are starting to block circulation.

[Dooku]

@aristotle
Please read my posy again: Did I say ANYWHERE in my post to BLOCK Chrome users? NO, I said to not use chrome as a website owner in order for you to not give away your valuable info to google for free. I might have needed to make that more clear in my post, for that I do apologize.

@NickMNS
I used to work for one of these fortune 200 companies in their almighty haydays. I have seen the inside workings and mentality of these companies and its far worse than you can imagine. Yes, they all collect info and what not. But that is not the point here, I don;t care what other companies do or don't. I only look at where I currently stand the best chance of making money with a reasonable effort while not getting outright robbed.
You are creating scenarios which are not relevant to our problem here, unfortunately. Because I am sure a lot of webmasters are in the same boat and want to improve their situation. So, its not about other companies doing this or that or if just one or a small group of people ditch GA or not.......alternatively we can all sit on our asses and wait for the universe's "big rip" when it ends.

In the mean time I have taken action with specific seo tactics and I am glad I did. No more google stress for me thank you.

[aristotle]

Dooku -- earlier in this thread someone did mention the possibility of blocking Chrome users. In my post about it, I didn't say it was you who said it. But you replied as if I was talking about you. So that's why I posted again. It was a misunderstanding somewhere.

[glakes]

earlier in this thread someone did mention the possibility of blocking Chrome users.

I know I had said it a while back, but blocking Chrome users originating from Google only. Google is the only source of traffic sending crap, so little would be lost even if Google outright banned the site for doing it. But I'd rather employ dynamic pricing. Increase the cost of goods 20% for all users coming from Google. The few that would buy would help offset the past time wasted on zombies and all the fake/irrelevant/etc. clicks I paid for in Adwords before I finally cut it off (except for testing).

[adamxcl]

I agree with a few others that it's all about performance which in turn make for happier customers. It's not necessarily just GA in particular but that is one of the worst drags. I have played with positioning before to help things load, or load it last, but it can still hang up and make you page "waiting" forever. It looks bad to me.

In one of my cases, I want people to pay for extra parts of the site. If it's slow or hangs up, it doesn't look as good or worth paying for. So I want performance and the least amount of junk added on the site.

I never saw any changes in traffic or ranking after removing it. I also noticed more crawling and then a few more pages being indexed after removing it. Maybe they didn't have quite as much data without GA so they had to do some things more in the dark?

[goodroi]

Can someone explain why they feel a single person switching from Chrome will make any difference to conversions or rankings when Google has over a billion people using Chrome? Bonus points if you provide facts or a case study :)

[glakes]

Can someone explain why they feel a single person switching from Chrome will make any difference to conversions or rankings when Google has over a billion people using Chrome?

I don't think it's necessarily all about making a difference in conversions but instead making a stand. Some people believe Google is collecting data we provide them and is using it against us. There's no question Google is throttling sales by limiting converting traffic - my log files provide definitive evidence of that. Removing GA or restricting the use of Chrome to increase conversions and rid sites of Google zombie traffic may make no difference (I personally have not done it yet) and don't use Chrome, but if removing GA and restricting Chrome users makes people feel better then more power to them. As others confirmed, removing GA makes sites load faster and that is great for the user experience. It's also good policy to protect our visitors privacy, and removing GA would be a huge step in that direction too.

[Wijnand schouten]

I don't think it's necessarily all about making a difference in conversions but instead making a stand.

I have GA off now for about 2 weeks.

- The traffic towards my website has not changed ( organic ) on volume.
- Conversions have increased, especially on the returning visitors
- The number of chrome visitors is down to a more normal volume ( from 60 % to +/- 40% )

As long as my conversions don't go down, GA stays off. ... if there is no negative effect , i really don't see the benefit of having it on at all except risking that google sells my visitor to my compettitor. I am also 100% sure Google uses analytics for this matter as in the analytics dashboard you can make retargeting lists yourself... so why shouldn't they do themselves for segments and sell those to my competitor? .... I see no single line in their terms stating that they refrain from doing that?