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

[icttn81089]

As the title of this topic , Can you tell me why ?

[Anna Howard]

May be because as most of the clients are un technical thus they wont be knowing that they can monitor traffic with on their websites too as too with the help of Google Analytics....

[whateverpedia]

Because having it installed slows your site loading speed down dramatically, and why would you want to give the big G even more information than they already have on you.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by whateverpedia

Because having it installed slows your site loading speed down dramatically, and why would you want to give the big G even more information than they already have on you.

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

Most guys don't install Google Analytics because they are paranoid G will stalk them (lol). This most times is the same guys running Adsense, like G doesn't track Adsense.

[easyrider7]

It is news to me that most people don't install Google Analytics on these types of sites. Maybe if they don't, it is because they don't know how (or even that GA exists).

[Clyde]

Footprints.

The less Google know, the better. Don't use Gmail, Google+, GA, GWT, Chrome anything Google you run away fast and never look back.

Wanna know why YouTube gets more traffic everytime there's an algo update?

because it's owned by Google.

[MikeFriedman]

Originally Posted by yukon

This most times is the same guys running Adsense, like G doesn't track Adsense.

This is the part that always cracks me up.

"I don't want Google to have any extra information about my site. On a side note, what size AdSense block will work best?"

Dumbasses.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

This is the part that always cracks me up.

"I don't want Google to have any extra information about my site. On a side note, what size AdSense block will work best?"

Dumbasses.

Here is an interesting story for you Mike, in regards to this topic.

I have a very large education site, monetized primarily with google adsense. About a year and a half ago the site was earning around $150 per day in adsense and I was thinking about selling it to get a "lump sum" of money to invest into other projects. My plan was to sell it on Flippa, however, as many people know when listing a Flippa auction they like to verify your traffic, etc., with google analytics.

I had never installed google analytics on any of my sites before this point, simply because I really don't care how much traffic I have, all I care about are the earnings from the site.

So, I added the analytics code to my site which is in the number 2 position for its main keyword and had been for more than a year at that point. The following morning after adding analytics I woke up to find that my site had dropped from position 2 to somewhere on page 3 of the results. That day my earnings went from $150 to about $3 and I went into panic mode. Knowing the only change I had made to the site was adding analytics I quickly decided to remove it. The following morning my site was back at number 2.

About 4 or 5 months later I had managed to convince myself that it was a coincidence and that analytics had nothing to do with the decline in rankings. So, I again installed analytics keeping in mind that I was still in the #2 spot. The next morning, my site had fallen about 30 - 40 positions for its main search term and again my earnings plummeted.

This time, I thought maybe I will leave the analytics on for a few days and see if it recovers. A few days later my site was still losing over a $100 per day, the rankings had not come back and I decided to remove them. The next morning, you guessed it, my site was back to the number 2 position and has remained there.

So, regardless of what anyone else thinks about whether or not analytics can effect your rankings negatively, I will never install them again.

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.

[NEseO]

It is all about giving the big G as little info as possible!! It really depends on your site, as above a high bounce rate indicates to G that you have poor content so if they have that info then they will penalise, better to be safe than sorry!!

[HelenAbell]

Strange. I use google analytics for all my sites, I have no problem with it, I haven't noticed any significant slowdown, and I like the information it gives me - which search keywords are working for me, where traffic is coming from, how many people are using mobile devices to try and view my site etc. But then again I want traffic to come to my site via Google so from my point of view, the more it knows about my site the better I guess.

[TheFBGuy]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

This is the part that always cracks me up.

"I don't want Google to have any extra information about my site. On a side note, what size AdSense block will work best?"

Dumbasses.

You don't know Google as much as you think you do if you call people "dumbasses" for not using a tool created by Google to "track data".

Since you are such a genius calling people "dumbasses", you do know that the Web Spam/Search Team and the Adsense Team are two completely separate departments, right? These two do NOT share any data at all unless Google as a whole is conducting some kind of investigation. Both of them use different technologies to track and analyze information.

Same thing with the Google Analytics Team, they are separate from the Web Web Spam/Search Team.

BUT has Google used data from GA to determine if certain sites provided "good user experience?" The answer is YES! Do they do it often? No, but they can occasionally do and have. So I do not blame people for not using GA... and personally knowing what I know about Google, I don't use Google Analytics either. I use Statcounter and other WP Plugins.

[Charley Brown]

From my understanding, most people do not choose to use Analytics because they fear that Google will all of a sudden realize that they have a plethora of microniche sites... as if Google couldn't already figure that out, lol.

[shaunixlol]

From what I heard, if you accidentally click on your advertisement and have Analytics, you automatically get banned.

[JRCarson]

I like to see how much traffic I get on my sites, which keywords are used to enter, which pages are getting the most views, etc... So I install Google Analytics.

[dminorfmajor]

Originally Posted by patrich

Here is an interesting story for you Mike, in regards to this topic.

I have a very large education site, monetized primarily with google adsense. About a year and a half ago the site was earning around $150 per day in adsense and I was thinking about selling it to get a "lump sum" of money to invest into other projects. My plan was to sell it on Flippa, however, as many people know when listing a Flippa auction they like to verify your traffic, etc., with google analytics.

I had never installed google analytics on any of my sites before this point, simply because I really don't care how much traffic I have, all I care about are the earnings from the site.

So, I added the analytics code to my site which is in the number 2 position for its main keyword and had been for more than a year at that point. The following morning after adding analytics I woke up to find that my site had dropped from position 2 to somewhere on page 3 of the results. That day my earnings went from $150 to about $3 and I went into panic mode. Knowing the only change I had made to the site was adding analytics I quickly decided to remove it. The following morning my site was back at number 2.

About 4 or 5 months later I had managed to convince myself that it was a coincidence and that analytics had nothing to do with the decline in rankings. So, I again installed analytics keeping in mind that I was still in the #2 spot. The next morning, my site had fallen about 30 - 40 positions for its main search term and again my earnings plummeted.

This time, I thought maybe I will leave the analytics on for a few days and see if it recovers. A few days later my site was still losing over a $100 per day, the rankings had not come back and I decided to remove them. The next morning, you guessed it, my site was back to the number 2 position and has remained there.

So, regardless of what anyone else thinks about whether or not analytics can effect your rankings negatively, I will never install them again.

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've worked fairly hard on my main AdSense site for almost a year now. I've been stuck at #2 for the main keyword for most of that time thanks to the DIYnetwork. I've also had analytics up since day one. After hearing about people straying from analytics for the first time and reading Pat's story, I'm taking analytics off right this minute. I never check it anyway. Adsense impressions are good enough for me.

Thanks for the post Pat

PS,
The worst part about this is I've put analytics on every single page of every single site I have. Palm to Face.

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by shaunixlol

From what I heard, if you accidentally click on your advertisement and have Analytics, you automatically get banned.

of cource N O T !!!!

[cagliostro]

Ok, i have now removed Analytics script from my main 4 years old website, making me about 150$ per month.

I will try to update here in a month or so of any changes.

[JustMago]

Originally Posted by dminorfmajor

I've worked fairly hard on my main AdSense site for almost a year now. I've been stuck at #2 for the main keyword for most of that time thanks to the DIYnetwork. I've also had analytics up since day one. After hearing about people straying from analytics for the first time and reading Pat's story, I'm taking analytics off right this minute. I never check it anyway. Adsense impressions are good enough for me.

Thanks for the post Pat

PS,
The worst part about this is I've put analytics on every single page of every single site I have. Palm to Face.

Let us know if there are any changes by tomorrow morning, won't ya? :P

[stoaf88]

I use analytics on all of my sites. Most have top 3 rankings for a bunch of good keywords and I have never had any problem with it.

[Rndmals]

Originally Posted by patrich

I woke up to find that my site had dropped from position 2 to somewhere on page 3 of the results. That day my earnings went from $150 to about $3

I've heard similar, and totally believe you, it's just pretty incredible every time I see it.

The idea of using analytics stats for ranking algorythm doesn't seem to be far fetched, IMO.

I'd had Analytics installed on every site I own, but on the last two I installed StatCounter instead just to experiment. These are very new sites and I'd like to see what the difference will be as far as ranking them etc.

Definitely subscribed to this thread.

[yukon]

Why are you people so paranoid?

I've been ranking sites that run Analytics for years, never had any problems.

Nobody cares about your sites, lol.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by yukon

Why are you people so paranoid?

I've been ranking sites that run Analytics for years, never had any problems.

Nobody cares about your sites, lol.

Way to add value to the conversation Yukon!

[ElectronPlumber]

Google has never come out and said that they DON'T use your Analytics data for other purposes such as marketing or rankings.

There are many anecdotal stories about people who have been HARMED by Analytics. Here are some examples:

1. Someone who had 10-100 sites all on different IPs suddenly go deindexed on the same day. The only thing linking them was a shared Analytics account.
2. Sites with Analytics dropping in search results right after enabling Analytics.

Imagine you are a Google Quality Engineer looking for algorithmic ways to improve search results and decrease spam. Analytics give you near PERFECT metrics for finding SEO spam for finding sites that target search engine traffic but that people don't like.

For example:
Any site with Bounce Rate over 70% that gets over 90% of it's traffic from search engines is probably spam, apply a -50% ranking penalty.

And the ONLY way Google can know that information is if you have Analytics installed.

I won't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

[JustMago]

What alternatives are there to analytics?

[jordyhill]

Originally Posted by patrich

I woke up to find that my site had dropped from position 2 to somewhere on page 3 of the results. That day my earnings went from $150 to about $3 and I went into panic mode. Knowing the only change I had made to the site was adding analytics I quickly decided to remove it. The following morning my site was back at number 2.

Patrich you have started an Anti G.A. revolution here. I too have just removed the only site I have G.A. working on. The only site that I have that went from #14 to nowhere! Its not an Adsense site but it's no coincidence either. Will check tomorrow.

Thanks man

[jordyhill]

Originally Posted by JustMago

What alternatives are there to analytics?

If you use Wordpress sites then try Statcounter

Plug in does it all

[yukon]

Originally Posted by patrich

Way to add value to the conversation Yukon!

My point was, Google doesn't care about anyones site, so stop being so paranoid.

If you don't take that info. as a valuable comment, keep wasting time hiding from Google.

We've got Dodgson Here - YouTube

[robdavids]

Very interesting story Patrich but also weird at the same time. Not sure if it was a coincidence or not but it sure sounds like keeping the analytics off your site was in your best interest and that's all that matters. I've never had any issues that I know about but maybe like in Patrich's case, some people have no desire to see the analytics or are using another traffic tracking source.

[TheFBGuy]

Originally Posted by yukon

My point was, Google doesn't care about anyones site, so stop being so paranoid.

I think you are missing the more important point.

Yes Google doesn't care about any specific individual sites, but they do care about what should be ranking in the top of it's search results, and they have and do use GA data. Google is OBSESSED about information.

You are naive if you think they don't use or check data from Google Analytics. That's like saying you don't mind checking how much money you have earned today or last week, lol.

The larger and more important point is that Google can use GA and has used it to determine rankings.

[danols]

What is the rationale for them to only use Analytics data for this and not Adsense data as well?
Is everyone who is removing Analytics also removing their Adsense code?
I'm definitely on the side of stop being so paranoid...

[patrich]

Originally Posted by yukon

My point was, Google doesn't care about anyones site, so stop being so paranoid.

If you don't take that info. as a valuable comment, keep wasting time hiding from Google.



We've got Dodgson Here - YouTube

If I misunderstood you Yukon, then I apologize. But, I don't remember saying that I was hiding from Google. I shared an experience that I had in regards to GA and everyone else can form their own opinions from there. I am not here to decide what everyone should do with their own businesses.

I don't personally use GA, but then again, I don't typically use any analytics program on my sites. When I do it is usually W3Counter.

The fact of the matter is though, there are two sides here, those that think Google doesn't use the data and those that think using GA can in fact harm your sites rankings. Which side of the fence am I on, not really sure to be honest.

Part of me says they don't use the data to determine serp positions and such, the other part says that they probably do. If I were them, I would use the data, I mean why not, its there.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by jordyhill

Patrich you have started an Anti G.A. revolution here. I too have just removed the only site I have G.A. working on. The only site that I have that went from #14 to nowhere! Its not an Adsense site but it's no coincidence either. Will check tomorrow.

Thanks man

lol, that is too funny.

The thing is, you can't race to conclusions because of one persons experience. If you, or anyone else, are concerned about how GA may or may not be affecting your site, then test, test, test. That is really the only way to decide for yourself whether or not it is a problem.

And, I really don't think that GA is a problem for every site. In fact, I suspect it might benefit some sites. If they are using the data to determine certain things about ones website, they may decide that your site is more relevant for the results and boost your rankings as a result, I really don't know what they use or how they use it.

[TryBPO]

I tend to agree that people who remove their GA code are being unnecessarily paranoid, but Patrich's story is compelling, actually. In looking at his other posts, he seems like a pretty reasonable guy...not one of those tin-foil types that are around, talking about the sky falling.

Still, just because it happened to Patrich does NOT mean it would happen to everyone in the same situation...it might have just triggered something specifically for him that would NOT apply to your situation.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by TryBPO

I tend to agree that people who remove their GA code are being unnecessarily paranoid, but Patrich's story is compelling, actually. In looking at his other posts, he seems like a pretty reasonable guy...not one of those tin-foil types that are around, talking about the sky falling.

Still, just because it happened to Patrich does NOT mean it would happen to everyone in the same situation...it might have just triggered something specifically for him that would NOT apply to your situation.

Thank you for that TryBPO. Pretty much what I was trying to convey in my recent posts, but your way of saying it sounds a little more straightforward than mine. lol

There are just too many factors that could have caused it. It was simply an experience. I have never seen a public statement from Google that says they do not use the GA data. However, I have seen public statements saying that they don't track website performance, etc., with adsense.

While I don't believe too much of what google says, as it is often a smoke and mirrors type of statement, in terms of things like this I would tend to believe it. Why? Because if google says that they don't use adsense to track your site performance, bounce rate and so forth, but then they do it anyway, it would result in a massive class action lawsuit that would cost them a fortune.

With that being said, the fact that I have not seen them publicize how they are using the analytics data, it could be concerning. Who knows.

[dburk]

Hi patrich,

While I have no reason to doubt your experience, and I am sympathetic to your results, I think it merits further testing. While it could be a simple coincidence, the fact that it happen twice points to the possibility of a relational causation.

From my personal experience, I have never seen GA being detrimental to rankings nor AdSense earnings and I have done numerous tests. If I were to venture a guess it would be that something in the way that you implemented the Google Analytics code was detrimental to your websites performance.

Perhaps you were just a hair above the page load speed threshold that causes a lowering of rankings and the extra time added by the GA code pushed your page over the limit. Or perhaps the location of your snippet within your code was less than optimal? It doesn't take much of a page load speed issue to seriously harm ad revenue.

It seems to me that there are too many unanswered questions to draw any reasonable conclusion beyond the simple fact that "something was wrong". To jump to the conclusion that it was something Google was doing is too much of a leap and not supported by my own experiences.

Why not have an expert, someone you trust, take a close look at the implentation methods you used to see if they can spot the issue? It could be that you can "have your cake, and it eat it too" if you dig into this a bit more.

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by hammertorch

anyone here has some results now after removing the GA yesterday?

You don't really expect results or changes in less than 24 hours ? do you ?

[DanBrown]

Originally Posted by cagliostro

You don't really expect results or changes in less than 24 hours ? do you ?

Patrichs story said that it happened the next morning each time, so yes.

That seems to be the one people are reacting to so measure like for like. 24 hours vs a few days/weeks wouldn't be a straight comparison.

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by DanBrown

Patrichs story said that it happened the next morning each time, so yes.

That seems to be the one people are reacting to so measure like for like. 24 hours vs a few days/weeks wouldn't be a straight comparison.

Apparently most of you don't have a clue about it.

Patrick didn't say WHAT DAY that happended. Monday ? Saturday ? Friday ? Sunday maybe ?

because my earnings depend on that very much. Just an example why 24 hours metering is not enough.

[patrich]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi patrich,

While I have no reason to doubt your experience, and I am sympathetic to your results, I think it merits further testing. While it could be a simple coincidence, the fact that it happen twice points to the possibility of a relational causation.

From my personal experience, I have never seen GA being detrimental to rankings nor AdSense earnings and I have done numerous tests. If I were to venture a guess it would be that something in the way that you implemented the Google Analytics code was detrimental to your websites performance.

Perhaps you were just a hair above the page load speed threshold that causes a lowering of rankings and the extra time added by the GA code pushed your page over the limit. Or perhaps the location of your snippet within your code was less than optimal? It doesn't take much of a page load speed issue to seriously harm ad revenue.

It seems to me that there are too many unanswered questions to draw any reasonable conclusion beyond the simple fact that "something was wrong". To jump to the conclusion that it was something Google was doing is too much of a leap and not supported by my own experiences.

Why not have an expert, someone you trust, take a close look at the implentation methods you used to see if they can spot the issue? It could be that you can "have your cake, and it eat it too" if you dig into this a bit more.

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.

Keep in mind, I never told everyone to run out and remove their analytics code, nor did I say that anyone would have the same experience as me. Because, as I have pointed out, I don't think that all sites would suffer the same problems.

The thing is, even if this hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't use GA anyway, simply because I really don't need it. I actually didn't intend to cause a "mass scare" lol, but you know how it goes.

[jordyhill]

Originally Posted by patrich

lol, that is too funny.

The thing is, you can't race to conclusions because of one persons experience. If you, or anyone else, are concerned about how GA may or may not be affecting your site, then test, test, test. That is really the only way to decide for yourself whether or not it is a problem.

And, I really don't think that GA is a problem for every site. In fact, I suspect it might benefit some sites. If they are using the data to determine certain things about ones website, they may decide that your site is more relevant for the results and boost your rankings as a result, I really don't know what they use or how they use it.

Ok well let me tell you where I am with this....

I took on board the moral of your original post and applied it to my site just to see if that was anything to do with my site dropping from #14 to as far back as the moon (I was tempted to say I took your advice but you didn't advise)

Its been 18 hours since I made the changes. Back in at #97. And its my homepage and not the individual articles which were showing in the results.
Now to begin some linkbuilding in earnest to get her back where she belongs.

So thank you for your post, for it has served me well, as it turns out

As for the whole debate, unless we personally know someone from the upper echelons of Google, willing to spill the beans, then I'm afraid only our best guess or opinion will do. I don't know, but I know what did the trick. Everyone can make their own minds up.

Hey Patrich, maybe it's just us. Google doesn't like us lol

[Steadyon]

Originally Posted by yukon

Why are you people so paranoid?

I've been ranking sites that run Analytics for years, never had any problems.

Nobody cares about your sites, lol.

The point is that for the vast majority of sites, the only intervention by google is something that has been triggered automatically in some way. (In other words most negative effects are not done manually by a google geek).

That doesn't alter the fact that some things can inadvertently cause a flag to be raised somewhere and the google algorithm does the rest.

I personally see no reason to give google any more data than it already can get without putting any of their code on my sites.

There are many ways automatic trips can be set off. So why place a few extra traps for yourself.

The only way I would put any of their code on a site of mine would be if it was completely brand new and not linking to any of my other sites in any way.

Otherwise why rock the boat if it is sailing along quite calmly?

Sam

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by oclseo

Google Analytics is useless to a mini sites, because mini sites are intended for sales page, not traffic.

This is bull*.

Analytics is a extremely valuable tool. The best out there. Nothing to do with traffic.

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by dagaul101

Google Analytics is always recommended or indeed any type of analytical software to monitor your progress, it opens a plethora of things to try out to find that midas touch

Is that a human writing or a roboto ?

[wolfez]

Ok I want to try it out, I'll remove the analytic tracking code from one of my sites.

Do I also need to get out of Webmaster Tool?
What about the G+ "like" icon code?

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by wolfez

Ok I want to try it out, I'll remove the analytic tracking code from one of my sites.

Do I also need to get out of Webmaster Tool?
What about the G+ "like" icon code?

Nop. But it has been posted here that we'll better NOT user ANYTHING from google if we use adsense.

For me, after 24 hours without analytics, i see nothing different. I will keep analytics out for a week and see how it goes.

[wolfez]

Originally Posted by pilatospoonfork

As I ask my friends why they wouldn't put Analytics in their site, they've just simply answered me by "I don't have time." or, "I'm not in a good mood" and the worst is, "I feel lazy".

So I concluded that there are no technical issues on why people don't want to put analytics in their site. It's just because they are "lazy"

Well, what I conclude is that you have lazy friends...

[wolfez]

Yesterday I removed the only trakcing code I had on one of my sites (on the main page) and this morning I looked at my analytic account and can still see results from yesterday...exactly the same results that I get from my domain provider so it kept receiving results till the end of the day.

My question : Should I also remove the site from the google analytic account? How will I know if it's still receiving data if I can't read it anymore?

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by wolfez

Yesterday I removed the only trakcing code I had on one of my sites (on the main page) and this morning I looked at my analytic account and can still see results from yesterday...exactly the same results that I get from my domain provider so it kept receiving results till the end of the day.

My question : Should I also remove the site from the google analytic account? How will I know if it's still receiving data if I can't read it anymore?

It is not receiving anything if you removed the SCRIPT from your pages(s).

BUT analytics are a bit delayed, so what you see is probably the remainings ....

Check after a while again (after 6-12 hours) and it should be zero.

[icttn81089]

Originally Posted by cagliostro

Nop. But it has been posted here that we'll better NOT user ANYTHING from google if we use adsense.

For me, after 24 hours without analytics, i see nothing different. I will keep analytics out for a week and see how it goes.

Remember post the update here my friend

Thanks !

[wolfez]

Well this might be a complete coincidence but since I removed the Google Analytic script from my website, all my keywords went down the god damn drain. Many keywords were in top ten with 3 being in the top 3. All this for several months and most keywords were getting a bit higher every week... Now, some of them are not even in the top 200 anymore!! My highest keyword is ranked 51 now.

Like I said this might be a coincidence howeever I see alot of coincidence happening in this thread ...

I was getting a steady 15-20 visitors/day for a couple of weeks now but since last night, 1 visitor..