Is Google Analytics Hurting My Site?

25 replies
  • SEO
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I have read that google analytics can lower a sites rank. Is there any truth to this?
#analytics #google #hurting #site
  • Profile picture of the author Britzie
    Conflicting stories doing the rounds - anyone know for sure?
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    • Profile picture of the author Talent
      You will hear arguments for both sides... However, there is no possible way to know FOR SURE...

      I have multiple #1 positions and I use analytics...
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  • Profile picture of the author Ray Wilson
    Don't think Google Analytics has any impact on your rankings whatsoever, and why should it. Where did you hear such stories? Sounds just something to create controversy.

    Haven't seen any impact on my niche websites I create anyway.

    -Ray
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  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    The answer is NO lol.. Analytics is there to help you analyze your site , the only difference with having it on is that when you do something wrong they will notice you..
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    • Profile picture of the author timpears
      Originally Posted by GodMode52 View Post

      The answer is NO lol.. Analytics is there to help you analyze your site , the only difference with having it on is that when you do something wrong they will notice you..
      While I don't disagree with your answer of 'no', I do disagree that Analytics is there to help you analyze your site. It is there for Google to collect data. Google just entices you with the analyze stuff.
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      Tim Pears

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      • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
          Originally Posted by Sandra Martinez View Post

          you can use piwik, it is self hosted.

          Piwik - Web analytics - Open source
          Piwik is great.

          Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

          I think that's ridiculous, don't you think Googles knows all there is to know about any site that is indexed, when spiders crawl your site they see everything except images with no alt tags.

          This is just another Big Brother paranoia theory.
          No... When you put in Google analytics, it is there not just for us to analyze the website but gives them way more information than they would have had.

          Whether a site has alt tags or not has nothing to do with it.

          If you think bounce rate, time spent on site, and other factors have nothing to do with ranking, you're very wrong.

          It isn't paranoia, I believe it to be 100% true. That is a huge signal that shows how relevant a website IS if the visitors are staying a while, instead of leaving immediately after reaching the website.

          I believe google analytics itself doesn't HURT your website, but I believe the information in there definitely DOES factor into how you are ranked.
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        • Profile picture of the author timpears
          Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

          You and Fernando must of attended the same college, university of Paranoia.
          If you don't believe that Google doesn't use the data they get from your site(s), then you are naive.
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          Tim Pears

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          • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
            [DELETED]
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            • Profile picture of the author timpears
              Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

              How can they use bounce rate as as a ranking factor by only getting data from a percentage of websites.
              That may be one item, but I am sure there is more to it than that. I don't know what data they accumulate and use.But I depend on them for most of my traffic, I dn't want them to have more data than they collect naturally in order to rank ny site in the SERP.

              I don't trust anyone that has that much power. All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
              Quote: John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834-1902).
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              Tim Pears

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              • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
                It's not official, but I do think that when you have analytics installed on your websites, Google can get a ton of website about your website. as to whether or not they use it ad a ranking factor, who knows. For one, Bouncing rate is a major factor in rankings nowadays and they get bounce rate information from analytics too!
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  • Profile picture of the author coreytucker
    are there any alternatives besides statcounter? I mean im paranoid about this type of stuff.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashp0wer
      No Google Analytics will not hurt your website. Is it only there to help YOU analyze your site and not hurt it. Did you read this somewhere? I would be interested to know where because it is wrong.
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      My Internet Marketing Blog - Warts And All!
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      • Profile picture of the author Stefan Vee
        Google Analytics - as any other online analysis tool - "hangs" sometimes, turning your site into a slow loading beast. If "loading-speed" is one of the factors to rank higher, then ... !
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  • Profile picture of the author Power Solutions
    The worry is that Google can link websites together and see if theres inappropriate link exchanges or link wheels. IF you`re doing some black hat stuff then you might not want to have analytics on your website. IF you already have adsense then go ahead and add analystics as Google would already know everything about your website in any case. My opinion only just from reading posts on WF. Most posts I`ve seen advise adding analytics if you have adsense and removing analytics if you aren`t using adsense.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Any site using ANY google script is giving them way MORE information then they need - and giving them EXACT information about your sites - including (but not limited to) stuff they REALLY don't need to know.

    If that is going to reflect on YOUR sites rankings? You can bet on that.
    If they are going to publicly say so? You can bet they won't.

    It's common sense, really. I just don't understand why people have a hard time understanding this...
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    People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
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  • Profile picture of the author coreytucker
    Thanks guys. Whats a good alternative to use besides statcounter? Is there a safe alternative?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hlatky
    I have used Clicky and I like it. Real time stats.

    Web Analytics in Real Time | Clicky
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  • Profile picture of the author Tadresources
    I highly doubt if this is true. I've heard conflicting stories but I don't hold much stock in it.
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  • Profile picture of the author GMT
    I think with Google's recent privacy changes(that they now use data between their services) I think it's almost guaranteed Google takes a look at your analytics. As far as if they punish for it or not I don't know. But seeing as they're infamous for banning accounts and giving little to no reason it wouldn't surprise me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leadzguy
    I can share this with you and 100% assure you it happens. If you have either a MCC or Webmastertools account with multiple sites it's only a matter of time before you get busted especially if you are in any related verticals more than once, no matter how unique your content is. Quick example November 13 2010, we had 3 of top 10 sites for an extremely difficult vertical and many kw's within it. No blackhat techniques used because the domains we have owned for over 10 years. There were 12 sites in the same webmastertools account, 100% of them were bumped back to page 5. They have languished there all this time, never lost pagerank. We continued to provide fresh unique content and still do so to this day. Not a one of them has budged since then. Since we are an agency as recognized by G, we thought we may get some insight into what happened. We have redesigned sites, they were all on customer WP themes, most back to HTML now. Submitted multiple re-inclusion requests to no avail. So take care and do not combine accounts under any circumstances.
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  • Profile picture of the author RyanLima
    Its all about "footprints" Every site you that you have Google Analytics you are giving Google information that could potential land you in the sandbox if your creating blog network and linking them together. I try to hide as much as possible from google as possible.

    I recommend using the statpress reloaded plug in to get your analytics data or sign up for Clicky its free for 1 website.
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