google analytics bad for link building of new sites

[phans]

Like most of you know google analytics is a great tool to keep track of your sites traffic but i am not sure if it can get young sites into the sandbox or even deindexed.

My thought is that if you put google analytics on your site while the site is new and doesn't get any traffic it looks strange if a site with no real visitors gets new backlinks daily.
Could it be that google says "him this site ain't getting any traffic but it gets 10 backlinks a day this looks unnatural let's put it into the sandbox to avoid manipulation"?

So it would be better/safer to put google analytics on your site after you are already ranking good in the serps and getting a lot of traffic.

What do you think about this? Do i have a point there or am i paranoid?

[cagliostro]

Paranoid^2

[phans]

Originally Posted by cagliostro

Paranoid^2

haha ok

[jonnyhardbaked]

Putting analytics has nothing to do with the effects of the link that you build to your site.

[Love2Blog]

Actually what he is asking is if using GA can be an issue for rankings and SEO.

Many webmasters believe this to be true, and while it may sound paranoid, it really isn't.

Google has admitted on several occasions that bounce rate data is part of the ranking algo. Using GA gives them a lot more access to what is going on at websites.

[OmarNegron]

Interesting. I've never thought of this but now that you mentioned this above, does make some sense.

I guess anything is possible. right?

-Omar

[zipprosystem]

I dont think so

[Love2Blog]

Originally Posted by OmarNegron

Interesting. I've never thought of this but now that you mentioned this above, does make some sense.

I guess anything is possible. right?

-Omar

To me, it is very possible, and Google has all ready admitted that they use bounce rate for rankings, just one signal, but still.

And with affiliate sites we kind of want people to leave, with our affiliate links of course, and buy.

Overall, Google's only interests are google and providing what they consider "quality" in search results. They hate affiliate sites, openly and greatly favor big brands, so we need to look out for our own interests.

And, GA is not that necessary, there are plenty of good analytics tools without big brother looking over.

[SEOHelix]

Although Google has said that they use bounce rates to help determine rankings, we are talking about a very very small percentage of the overall mark for ranking.


It would safe to believe that there is more weight for websites that have used GA for a longer period than a shorter period. Some sort of weighting method is probably used.

[down]

Never give unlimited information to Google about your website. Installing Google analytics into your website means that you give Google a chance dominating and controlling you.

[Joe Light]

Dang, I love analytics though... well it's so easy to use.

Do you guys recommend piwik?

[nichesitebasics]

If your site isn't getting any traffic then you don't need Google Analytics but Google doesn't need it to see if your getting an un-natural amount of backlinks.

Just build a high quality website and slowly build some links to it and you'll be fine.

[martworld]

Yes, you are right. I have experienced myself on my new sites.

[jacksonlin]

I don't use analytics anymore. I am paranoid. You should be too.

[CuteMind]

actually google analytic is a great tool. it also happen on my mind when my blog was new. but i think page rank is not based on traffic. traffic is based on alexa rank. if you have huge unique visitors then your alexa rank will improve gradually. so don't think about that. go ahead

[Ansari]

There is no solid evidence that google analytics can effect rankings but why volunteer to give google data about your site. Personally i use third party software.

[Love2Blog]

Originally Posted by Joe Light

Dang, I love analytics though... well it's so easy to use.

Do you guys recommend piwik?

I use PIWIK now and I love it, it's a litte bit of a pain to set up, but it does offer a lot and it's free.

Also remember that if you use Hostgator they offer very nice stats in the cpanel as well, as some other hosts do as well.

[retsek]

You guys really need to stop. Less than 1/3 of the websites in the world use GA. Most of the Top 100 don't even use it, they use enterprise level analytics that they pay thousands of dollars for.

Google DOES use analytics data in aggregate, no specific site is targetted. You can even opt-out of sharing the data.

They wouldn't use that data against the very people that make use of their service. If you believe there are penalties for it, then you must also believe there are rewards. There are none. Using GA as any sort of ranking signal would be unfair both to the 1/3 of people who use it and the 2/3 of people who don't.

Yes bounce rate is a factor. But it is a very small one, like site speed. And even if they use it, it's not from your actual bounce rate that you know. It's actually rate at which users "bounce" back to the search results page having not found anything useful on your site and moving onto another a result. That, they measure and guess what? they don't need your analytics or your permission to do it.

A low bounce rate is NOT necessarily a bad thing. Many times a page may provide exactly the right information the user is looking for. If they have that, they really have no other to browse further unless they're looking for even more. For example, what do you think the bounce rate is for whatismyipaddress.com. I'd bet it's in the high 80s.

It would be dumb to use the "bounce rate" as your softwares report it as a ranking signal.

Bottomline, I feel there are no risks to using either GA or Webmaster Tools.

[cagliostro]

Well now that i think more about it (my first reaction was "paranoid^2), i guess Google with Analytics can even see Fiverr orders (when you order from Fiver a very specific refferer is logged). And that is not good.

Fiverr is an example, i guess everything is logged and maybe counted. Who knows. Better safe than sorry, especially for new websites.