Google Analytics - How it Affects Site Ranking - Case Study

9 replies
Calling this a "Case Study" may be a bit of a stretch as it's not scientific, but it may be helpful.

This Test took place from October 11, 2011 the day I turned off Google Analytics, until today November 15, 2011. Excluding start day and end day it's just over a month.

Q: Does Placement of Google Analytics Code on your Website Affect Site Ranking
A: Draw your own conclusions

Test: I used 7 sites out of my Portfolio that I knew I would not be making any changes to over the course of the test. These sites are aged domains between 5 and 10 years. They are all affiliate sites that have a mix of Adsense and Affiliate Links. All but one site is WordPress, the other Joomla.

All sites have been running Google Analytics for more than a year. To test I simply disabled the plug in. To verify I looked at my Google Analytics account to see that data was not being collected.

The Results come from cPanel AWSTATS

Site 1 Travel Niche Visitors Per day: Start 57.6 End 55.6
Site 2 Travel Niche Visitors Per day: Start 33.6 End 34.6
Site 3 Home Niche Visitors Per day: Start 109.9 End 134.2
Site 4 Health Niche Visitors Per day: Start 42.8 End 68.3
Site 5 Travel Niche Visitors Per day: Start 80.5 End 71.5
Site 6 Sports Niche Visitors Per day: Start 128.4 End 144.9
Site 7 Auto Niche Visitors Per day: Start 196.6 End 152.3

Total Visitors per month: Start 649.4 End 664.4

Summary: 7 Sites not seasonally specific were tracked for 1 month by turning off Google Analytics and tracked using AwStats in cPanel

Conclusion: Over this time period it did not seem to affect traffic based on simply turning off Google Anyalytics

Discussion: Does anyone have PROOF that using Google Analytics will improve or reduce your rankings?
#affects #analytics #case #google #ranking #site #study #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author caseycase
    I don't think I have ever seen any evidence that is has an effect whatsoever. Seems that your study would support that conclusion.
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    • Profile picture of the author PLRExpress
      I know that there has been much speculation about this. I have heard many say that G Analytics reduces your ranking and some say that it increases it.

      Personally, I have never found any difference when I installed or uninstalled G Analytics.

      I use both GA, other open source analytics and even paid analytics - I can't see any difference between them.
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    • Profile picture of the author azmanar
      Hi,

      A nice study.

      I have always assumed that having GA would improve my traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author manny2513
    Google Analytics do not affect rankings. Now if you are doing something GreyHat or Black Hat on your site then having G Analytics on your sites is like helping Google to find the information that you are supposed to hide. But if you are honest and do everything the right way then Analytics and Webmaster Tools Helps you keep track of your visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author rooze
    Google has most of the data it needs on your site without analytics. GA provides the end user with a GUI to view the data collected. There are some frills that GA brings to the party, mostly in its ability to record the activity of non google traffic. But if you think about it, when someone finds your site from a google search, google can see most of the pertinent activity about their session without analytics. If it's interested in bounce rate, time spent on a page, number of page views, as benchmarks for site quality, then it doesn't really need the tracking code installed. So I've always considered GA to be a passive script that doesn't offer them much info that they don't already have.
    But that's still an interesting test, thanks for sharing.
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  • Profile picture of the author sharmaravi08
    Banned
    Google Analytics never effects your rankings. It is due to your bad SEO that rankings go down. I have been using GA since long and have never seen rankings to go down. Yes, sometimes rankings do a dance but then settles down within a week. It is purely a myth that GA has any affect on rankings...
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    • Profile picture of the author Ralph Moore
      Google Analytics, by itself, was never meant to improve the rank of your website.

      It is merely a tool set that gives you more information and allows you to track how the changes you make to your site, in concert with other aspects, such as adding content, driving traffic, etc. all affect your ranking, and when monetized properly, your income.

      If, in fact, the purpose of your site is to provide income. Not all are designed or intended for that purpose.
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  • Profile picture of the author TolyZ
    GA never effected rankings, it's just a myth. Google started taking into account your Bounce Rate, Page views / visit and time spent on the site to rank your web site to knock off all the 2-3 pages adsense and other bs sites. All what Analytics does is provides you with that information, so you can see from which page your visitors exit your site etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronaldmd
    It is just analytic, it won't improve traffic, just give you analytic data of your traffic.
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