Web Analytics: Google Analytics vs Piwik Open Source Web Analytic

[YoichiSpeaks]

Hey warrior members,

I was recently introduced to Piwik an open source web analytics tool

I have been using Google Analytics for a while now and have given me great results.

However, the person who introduced me to Piwik argued that Google Analytics can effect your SEO and pagerank and referred Greg Jacobs who suggest not to use Google Analytics.

I have installed Piwik to actually try it out for myself on one of my site yesterday. It is a much longer process to install than Google Analytics but the dashboard seems to be very easy to navigate and have already picked up traffic.

I would like to hear from fellow warriors on their thought about this.
Have you heard of Piwik(.org)? Do you use Piwik? Other recommended Web analytics tool? Any SEO expert know anything about this?

[gskesavan]

LOL! I'm hearing about Piwik for the first time now so I think I will give it a try right away and let you know. Thanks for the info

[noble]

My thoughts:

All analytics programs and sites are slightly different. The important thing is to be able to track changes from day to day, week to week, etc. to see trends and increases or declines and find out what is working for you. Because of this I think the most important thing is simply to pick one and stick with it, trying to compare stats across multiple platforms will give you skewed data.

[JamestheJust on Elance]

I know it's an old thread but seeing as how I found it just now with a Google search, I may as well tell you:

• Analytics programs don't affect PageRank at all.
• Greg Jacobs doesn't suggest Google Analytics because it leaves you open to Google shutting your AdSense acct down if you're shady (and if you use his systems, i.e. Mage Monster or whatever - you're trying something you SHOULD worry about with Google - it's a stupid system).
• Google Analytics will give your position away to ANYONE who wants to do a little bit of digging - they'll find ALL your sites with your G.A. code on it...so it's just not a smart/competitive analytics program to use.
• Giving Google all your data that way is something that lots of web masters would rather NOT do, and I'm one of them.

The main reason I'm personally NOT using Google Analytics is for the competitive advantage of obscurity and obfuscation - I don't want to give ALL my sites away with a fat footprint (i.e. my analytics program).

The reason I found this thread is I'm wondering if others have shared their experience on open source analytic programs, Piwik was one, but it gave rise to a better model: Open Web Analytics or OWA.

As I understand it, OWA was developed by borrowing much of what made Piwik great, but added features like a heat map, tracking mouse activity and all that.

But anyhow, just wanted to clarify that analytic programs don't affect your SEO (unless they seriously slow your page speed down, in which case even then it's nominal).

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by JamestheJust on Elance

Google Analytics will give your position away to ANYONE who wants to do a little bit of digging - they'll find ALL your sites with your G.A. code on it...so it's just not a smart/competitive analytics program to use.

If you use a central Piwik account to do your analytics, as most halfway-intelligent people with a massive network would, they can search out the Piwik footprint just as easily. Just sayin'.

[iAmNameLess]

Originally Posted by JamestheJust on Elance

I know it's an old thread but seeing as how I found it just now with a Google search, I may as well tell you:

• Analytics programs don't affect PageRank at all.
• Greg Jacobs doesn't suggest Google Analytics because it leaves you open to Google shutting your AdSense acct down if you're shady (and if you use his systems, i.e. Mage Monster or whatever - you're trying something you SHOULD worry about with Google - it's a stupid system).
• Google Analytics will give your position away to ANYONE who wants to do a little bit of digging - they'll find ALL your sites with your G.A. code on it...so it's just not a smart/competitive analytics program to use.
• Giving Google all your data that way is something that lots of web masters would rather NOT do, and I'm one of them.

The main reason I'm personally NOT using Google Analytics is for the competitive advantage of obscurity and obfuscation - I don't want to give ALL my sites away with a fat footprint (i.e. my analytics program).

The reason I found this thread is I'm wondering if others have shared their experience on open source analytic programs, Piwik was one, but it gave rise to a better model: Open Web Analytics or OWA.

As I understand it, OWA was developed by borrowing much of what made Piwik great, but added features like a heat map, tracking mouse activity and all that.

But anyhow, just wanted to clarify that analytic programs don't affect your SEO (unless they seriously slow your page speed down, in which case even then it's nominal).

Yeah, but doesn't it make sense to use more than one account for your analytics then?

[davjone]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

If you use a central Piwik account to do your analytics, as most halfway-intelligent people with a massive network would, they can search out the Piwik footprint just as easily. Just sayin'.

Actually that's not true.

You can configure Piwik's client to use a local proxy to communicate with the central Piwik server. The other option is to use the API tracking method which is completely server side.

Check out my sig to get more information on how it works.

[zaco]

I had second thoughts about Google Analytic today, since Google can see the bounce rate on your site then they can include it in their ranking factors.. but again we don't know if Google does add cookies when you search for a term and go to a site then leave it right away, they might have some cookies that tells them if you closed the page and went to facebook or whatever site, I think they do have such thing to be able to tell even if you don't have the analytics.. I would love to hear from someone experienced so I can decide if I should install it or stay away from it.

[davjone]

The reason I don't use Google Analytics or any other program that will leave a footprint is because I don't want Google or anyone else knowing which sites are mine.

Getting one site penalized is bad enough but having all your sites penalized can be devastating.

[Snow_Predator]

But surely if you focus on providing lots of good value on your websites, then you'll have a low bounce rate and good stats in general that will make Google rank your site HIGHER as a result of seeing your analytics?

[WilliamLark]

I personal use Google Analytics but have never used Piwik's and found some of the above post to be very interesting and looking forward to other warriors opinions on the subject.

[rushikesh]

what are your thoughts on getclicky.com, how good it is compared to GAnalytics or piwik, getclicky does cost you money if compared to these two. but other than that how good are its features comparison