Why most people don't install Google Analytics on Mini Niche Site?

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by patrich

So why did this happen? My guess would be that I had a very high bounce rate, because I had a very high ctr on my adsense. In other words people would hit my site, click on an ad and leave. Analytics was tracking this bounce rate and decided that since it was so high, I must not be a "good" result for the search term and dropped me. That is the only theory that makes sense to me.

I don't know but making guesses and theories is not answering the question. Let's use a bit of logic here which seems to be in short supply.

I don't know why people often mention bounce rate. That does not make sense to me. Google's goal is to give the best results possible. Once someone searches and given results, Google's job is done. They don't care what happens after someone clicks on a listing. They certainly can't tell your bounce rate, not unless you have Analytics installed and not every site has it. And if you do have it installed, I think bounce rate would be a poor metric to use, certainly not something I'd give enormous weight to.

Having a high CTR on your Adsense also does not make much sense. Almost all of Google's revenues are from ads. They strive to get the highest CTR possible. It's good for them, good for the advertisers and good for Google. So why penalize for that? If anything, you should be higher in the rankings. What's more, Google doesn't need Analytics to figure that out, they have your Adsense data.

The other thing is, once Google knows you have a "poor" site for whatever reason you think, why restore your rankings even after taking GA off? Wouldn't it already know of the penalty and therefore not regain your higher rankings?

Back to the OP's question, maybe they don't know about Analytics. Maybe they don't need it. After all, you get the same data from your log files. The question is a little strange in that, why would you care what others are doing and how did you determine that? Actually checked a lot of sites?

Strange results you got and I don't have a plausible answer why it happened.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by patrich

Hey Dburk. You are probably right, it would merit further testing. However, even if it was a performance issue in my case, that lowered page load speed and effected my rankings, then GA would have still been at fault, in my case.

Hi patrich,

I fail to see the logic in your conclusion. If you have a page that is poorly optimized for speed, It's Google's fault?

It seems to me that you are assuming that you have already done everything possible to optimize your website's page load speed and that you have virtually no content, or code, on your website other than Google's scripts. That seems highly unlikely to me.

What is the average page load time for the page that dropped? What have you done to segment and cache common components of your website that run server side? What techniques have you employed to compress your pages? What order do you load your scripts? Have you separated common scripts into server-side include files that can cached client-side? Have you reduced, removed and consolidated every image as much as possible?

The point is that there is so much that you could do to address the issue of page load speed. And virtually none of them can be blamed on Google. The fact is that Google continuously invests significant resources on optimizing the speed and efficiency of their scripts. The likeliness of it being Google's fault, is very low in my opinion.

Perhaps I'm missing something, please enlighten me on exactly how it is Google's fault. I know I can sometimes be dense, but I am really trying to understand this, please help me understand how it is Google's fault.

[hpad06]

Lucid,

I think you are not seeing the big picture here. Google has repeated said they care about user experience, and bounce rate is a perfect metric to tell if user like the page or not. If there is nothing useful for the user to see on a page, of course user will leave ,and bounce rate will be high.

it's best to be safe than sorry, so don't put GA if your site isn't high quality = high bounce rate . google penalty is way too easy to receive.

[Loloy Diango]

I'm just wondering...

Why would Google maintain a service like Google Analytics if not many people use it? Surely, because the Big G continues to offer its analytics technology, it is safe to surmise that a lot of people use it.

So, why would a lot of people continue using it if it has been known to do more harm than good to their websites?

Are a majority of sites NOT USING Google Analytics enjoying good rankings? And are majority of sites USING Google Analytics NOT RANKING well in the SERPs?

[DanBrown]

Originally Posted by hpad06

bounce rate is a perfect metric to tell if user like the page or not. If there is nothing useful for the user to see on a page, of course user will leave ,and bounce rate will be high.

Or they got the info they wanted without wading through piles of useless stuff and left 100% satisfied. Therefore the page was ranked correctly.

[Rndmals]

Originally Posted by DanBrown

Or they got the info they wanted without wading through piles of useless stuff and left 100% satisfied. Therefore the page was ranked correctly.

Exactly.
For instance, if someone is doing a search for a longtail phrase, finds a page and the answer they are looking for can be summed up in one paragraph, and maybe in even in a sentence or two, and they don't really hang out on the site any longer. So yeah, I would say it is not really an accurate metric of value.

[whateverpedia]

Originally Posted by yukon

Lol, it does not slow down your site (what a load).

Every site that I visit that loads slowly gives a message "waiting for google-analytics" or words to that effect. I have seen the same thing on a variety of systems, connections etc., and it always GA that is slowing the site down.

I know many other people who have had the same experience, so sorry old mate, you seem to have tipped your "load" all over yourself.

[wildjohnny]

I'm using GA for long time and never had any problems with it. If you are doing everything legal, only white hat, there is no need for worry.

[junne]

Story seems to be disturbing.I have 8 websites all ranking in top 10,If this story is really true then may be removing analytics code from them will rank them on top.
so i will be trying this out one by one for one week.

[wolfez]

^ try one and tell us how it went.

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by hpad06

Lucid, I think you are not seeing the big picture here.

I think I am of course and looks like DanBrown and Rndmals agree. I don't see how you equate user experience with bounce rate. Google has NO WAY to know you had a good user experience from the bounce rate or even if you found what you were looking for. That is not Google's definition of a good user experience.

[InternetMarketingIQ]

This is an interesting opinion related directly to this topic:

Source: Does Google Analytics affect SEO - Google Analytics Help

Dear All,

You know one of the concepts of keeping Google Analytics free is dragging you in a comfort zone so that you can share your site data. Sharing data here doesn't mean disclosing it to others but letting Google know which site pages have lower bounce rates, retention & considerable average time.
So yes enabling GA for analysis of your site does affect ranking positions and ranking will be dropped only for pages which shows lower bounce rates. And they are right in a way as Google is commited to provide relevant results to its loyal visitors and this is its strength over other search engines.
Apart from Google Analytics, Google also grabs data from toolbars, bookmarks & apps (esp. when you are logged in & access external site) to know user behavior and its approach towards visited site. These types of data backed by advanced algo system helps them determine the right web page to be ranked in top positions.
So all other white hat techniques implemented adhering to Google guidelines might help you till the time GA tracks the actual visitations behavior and if your site falters for longer period, it might lose positions though this takes few months to happen.
Similar Contents uploaded in different format like doc, xml, pdf does not affect ranking as its considered as part of usability in downloading feeds/data.
In short, its great to have a win-win situation for both GA & its users as it divulges site info in such an advanced analytical manner that you can use it to enhance your site usability & visitation metrics by filling up leakage points. And you can even make your site web pages rank higher by planning & executing the tasks on priority basis as per GA info.


Regards,
Lalit Kumar SEO, PPC, Analytics Expert

[InternetMarketingIQ]

And on this page you will find information where Google claims it will NOT effect your ranking.

Frequently asked questions for the Google Analytics data sharing options - Analytics Help

Will sharing my data directly affect the ranking of my natural search results, ad quality score or ad placement? Back to Top

Your website data will not be used to affect your natural search results, ad quality score or ad placement. Aggregate data across many customers will be used to improve our products and services.

Who to believe, what to believe. All you can do is TEST for yourself and do what makes you money.

I do not take what Google says at face value. As they are in business to make money they will ALWAYS do what is in their own best interests.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi patrich,

I fail to see the logic in your conclusion. If you have a page that is poorly optimized for speed, It's Google's fault?

It seems to me that you are assuming that you have already done everything possible to optimize your website's page load speed and that you have virtually no content, or code, on your website other than Google's scripts. That seems highly unlikely to me.

What is the average page load time for the page that dropped? What have you done to segment and cache common components of your website that run server side? What techniques have you employed to compress your pages? What order do you load your scripts? Have you separated common scripts into server-side include files that can cached client-side? Have you reduced, removed and consolidated every image as much as possible?

The point is that there is so much that you could do to address the issue of page load speed. And virtually none of them can be blamed on Google. The fact is that Google continuously invests significant resources on optimizing the speed and efficiency of their scripts. The likeliness of it being Google's fault, is very low in my opinion.

Perhaps I'm missing something, please enlighten me on exactly how it is Google's fault. I know I can sometimes be dense, but I am really trying to understand this, please help me understand how it is Google's fault.

You fail to see the logic in my conclusion, because there was no conclusion. You are making it out like I was doing a case study or a test which I wasn't.

What I shared was an experience that happened to me, I didn't say it would be the same for others, in fact, I said the opposite. I also didn't say that it was "absolutely" because of analytics. Because it might not have been, I don't know, and don't really care that much to be honest.

So, basically, I never said "Hey this is google's fault". I shared an experience and you are now taking bits and pieces of what I said out of context, which btw is kind of irritating.

[dminorfmajor]

Well, I uninstalled Google Analytics 6 days ago. I have noticed mild changes with my rankings going up a little with minimal backlinking effort but the real wonder here is my estimated earnings via AdSense. On my main AdSense site, I usually get anywhere from .10c-25c a click depending on if the user clicks the text or image ads but I have noticed huge clicks in the past few days upwards of $1.30. I haven't seen those kinds of clicks since my first few days of getting visitors. I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure I didn't have Analytics installed when I used to get those big clicks. That just goes back to what Pat said on the previous page about Analytics giving the Google algorithm more statistics about your site, determining just how good it is.

As many have said, results will most likely vary from user to user from case to case. I am just letting you everyone know what has happened in my experience. The connection between Analytics and lower rankings/earnings are almost uncanny in my case but I don't want anyone to put all of their hope into this idea. If you're doing fine with Google Analytics, I suggest you leave it on. I wasn't doing fine so I could afford to experiment.

Thanks for this thread guys. It's helped out a lot. Good luck to everyone else!

[cagliostro]

After removing analytics from all my websites (7), i had a slight increase of CPC but after 3 days my traffic went down 30%.

I'm not telling it is because of Analytics. I have no idea if they are related.

I will do some further testing.

[JustMago]

What traffic sources did you lose the traffic from?

[Flat Fee Recruitment]

A great topic! Lots of arguments from both sides of the coin! This has definitely opened my mind! Hmmmmmmm!

[dburk]

Originally Posted by patrich

Hey Dburk. You are probably right, it would merit further testing. However, even if it was a performance issue in my case, that lowered page load speed and effected my rankings, then GA would have still been at fault, in my case.

Originally Posted by patrich

You fail to see the logic in my conclusion, because there was no conclusion. You are making it out like I was doing a case study or a test which I wasn't.

What I shared was an experience that happened to me, I didn't say it would be the same for others, in fact, I said the opposite. I also didn't say that it was "absolutely" because of analytics. Because it might not have been, I don't know, and don't really care that much to be honest.

So, basically, I never said "Hey this is google's fault". I shared an experience and you are now taking bits and pieces of what I said out of context, which btw is kind of irritating.

Hi patrich,

I'm sorry, I didn't intend on being irritating. I was responding to your reply where you wrote:

Originally Posted by patrich

Hey Dburk. You are probably right, it would merit further testing. However, even if it was a performance issue in my case, that lowered page load speed and effected my rankings, then GA would have still been at fault, in my case.

I somehow interpreted that to mean that you felt that "GA would have still been at fault" in your case. I guess I misunderstood what you meant.

I then added some probing questions with the intent of leading your thoughts (along with readers following this thread) as to possible alternate causes worth looking into.

Please forgive me for misunderstanding your words and irritating you. I hope that others reading this got something useful out my feeble effort.

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by JustMago

What traffic sources did you lose the traffic from?

I lost my organic traffic, but again since i'm alsways working on the website it maybe something else.

[ddDonPaul]

how about google webmasters tools? does that hurt your site? :-s