Deleted My Google Analytics and Webmaster Account

13 years ago

I dropped out of GA, when they changed the TOS at Google, I also created a website to bash their brains out, still working on that one, I left one website in GA, and its rank dropped like a rock, the others websites not in GA, all Went up in ranking, but I will say that all my sites have unique well written content, no more than 25 percent advertising.

Natural Back links, I have better organic traffic with as little as 12 backlinks as some that have hundreds of backlinks.

So its not all GA, but I do think that not only is GA not accurate but they use the data to their benefit not yours, use your server logs they dont lie.

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webapex

13 years ago

HigherPrThanGod, you didn't really mention if you had other control sites without analytic that didn't drop, with th Panda drama and backlink networks dying there are other explanations for sudden drops.

I believe one course (a WSO?) about recovering from Panda setbacks mentioned eliminating Analytics and webmaster tools as one of his general precautions.

(Actually his case studies seemed to rebuild the whole site on a new domain)

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briansmith84

13 years ago

This actually makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I'll move everything back over to Statcounter.

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dracoboar

13 years ago

At this point google analytics is all risk and no reward, I honestly see no reason to keep it.

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James53

13 years ago

Originally Posted by dracoboar

At this point google analytics is all risk and no reward, I honestly see no reason to keep it.

Very interesting thread. IT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THAT GA could be harmful to my serps. I noticed the same thing about my traffic stats (i'm running a couple hundred websites). WOW!

All risk and no reward...brilliant observation. Dumping GA tomorrow. Back to AWSTATS

Thanks

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Bongoshaq1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by James53

Very interesting thread. IT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THAT GA could be harmful to my serps. I noticed the same thing about my traffic stats (i'm running a couple hundred websites). WOW!

All risk and no reward...brilliant observation. Dumping GA tomorrow. Back to AWSTATS

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chazlcom 13 years ago

Originally Posted by dracoboar

At this point google analytics is all risk and no reward, I honestly see no reason to keep it.

I'm busting out a bunch of new joomla and wp sites. Glad I read this thread now.
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bvbiz 13 years ago

Exactly right! I was told by many to not include Big G in anything that gives them an open door to your site and info. I believe this to be sound advice.

Originally Posted by dracoboar

At this point google analytics is all risk and no reward, I honestly see no reason to keep it.
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briansmith84

13 years ago

Switched back to Statcounter. Would there be any disadvantages to ditching Webmaster Tools as well? Any advantages to keeping it?

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dracoboar

13 years ago

Originally Posted by briansmith84

Switched back to Statcounter. Would there be any disadvantages to ditching Webmaster Tools as well? Any advantages to keeping it?

this depends, if you find information in webmasters tools that helps you I would suggest keeping it, if not then dont.

Right now google is notifying a lot of people via webmasters tools about their website and if you think you may receive that message maybe it is best to wait.

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seosoldier

13 years ago

Originally Posted by dracoboar

this depends, if you find information in webmasters tools that helps you I would suggest keeping it, if not then dont.

Right now google is notifying a lot of people via webmasters tools about their website and if you think you may receive that message maybe it is best to wait.

I don't mean to be a smartass but what good would it do to get that notice? It's simply a notice saying you have "unnatural links" from what I hear and apparently they're giving it out to completely white hat webmasters as well as those who have bought links from SEO co's etc.

I think it's best to have as little to do with Google as possible. There is no reason to use their webmaster tools nor GA imho and doing so is just playing into their game, which is basically to hurt anyone they don't like even if they have no good reason for not liking them.

It's not even that clear cut. It's more like they've gone mad and have no idea what they're doing. If you have looked at some of the threads and blogs about this, there are tons of examples of horrible spammy sites now being above good sites in the rankings. In other words, this Penguin update had the OPPOSITE EFFECT of what was supposedly intended (to get rid of webspam).

In my niche, my competitors now have sites above mine that have ZERO content, that's the honest to god truth, and my heavy-content site is now back on page 30. Go figure. There's no sense to it. It's dumb, and it's hurting a lot of good people's businesses. For that reason alone we should boycott Google.

The whole idea of a search engine is to put informational, worthwhile sites towards the top and spammy sites towards the bottom. Supposedly this was the intention of the Penguin, but the result has been quite the opposite.

If Google doesn't roll this back to pre-Penguin search results, they may be committing suicide. It may take awhile but believe me the average user will soon see the crappy results they're getting with Google searches the same as how those of us "in the know" are seeing it.

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braincandy7

13 years ago

I have not used any other analytics than GA. I hear ou guys mentioning Statcounter..........easy to setup and free. When i say easy i guess i am also talking about time taken to switch 17 sites over.

I have heard good things about Piwik as well. Anyone know what their setup process is like?

Thanks
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briansmith84

13 years ago

Originally Posted by braincandy7

I have not used any other analytics than GA. I hear ou guys mentioning Statcounter..........easy to setup and free. When i say easy i guess i am also talking about time taken to switch 17 sites over.

I have heard good things about Piwik as well. Anyone know what their setup process is like?

Statcounter has been around for many years with a PR8. They are definitely one of the largest services, and are very easy. With anyone, it'll take a bit of effort to move 17 sites, but well worth it. With Wordpress, it's extra simple. Took me 2min to cancel my Analytics project and setup Statcounter through Wordpress.

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seosoldier

13 years ago

Originally Posted by braincandy7

I have not used any other analytics than GA. I hear ou guys mentioning Statcounter..........easy to setup and free. When i say easy i guess i am also talking about time taken to switch 17 sites over.

I have heard good things about Piwik as well. Anyone know what their setup process is like?

I use highstats. Free and pretty dang good. I haven't compared to these others so they may be better or worse, just thought I'd throw their hat into the ring because I've found them useful.

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webjedi

13 years ago

Originally Posted by braincandy7

I have not used any other analytics than GA. I hear ou guys mentioning Statcounter..........easy to setup and free. When i say easy i guess i am also talking about time taken to switch 17 sites over.

I have heard good things about Piwik as well. Anyone know what their setup process is like?

I have used Piwik (recently) and I got nothin' but love for it. VERY nice alternative (I tested and examined about 8 top contenders).

It's FREE that's a big deal. I hooked it up to about 10 sites and here is the thing.. it requires an install and DB table on each server the sites are on.

Nice reporting and stuff but CAN get resource heavy on your server so examine Piwiks needs there and if it will hog your server CPU time.

I also found a nice desktop program that let me look at ALL my piwik sites at once. Twas nice my friend, recommended

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AJ Warrior

13 years ago

Trashing your GA account was a good idea they don't need to no all your business I have moved else where as well

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braincandy7

13 years ago

Will give it a blast. Cheers

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braincandy7

13 years ago

Just looking at stat counter now.

Free Accounts

*Lifetime summary stats, independent from log
*Free log quota of 500 per project
*Full range of stats pages
*No credit card required
*Stats pages supported by ads

What does a log quota of 500 per project actually cover? Per project means per site right?

Thanks
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briansmith84

13 years ago

Originally Posted by braincandy7

Just looking at stat counter now.

Free Accounts

*Lifetime summary stats, independent from log
*Free log quota of 500 per project
*Full range of stats pages
*No credit card required
*Stats pages supported by ads

What does a log quota of 500 per project actually cover? Per project means per site right?

Yes, per site. You can keep resetting the quota but I prefer to have all history so I pay the very small fee to upgrade.

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HigherPrThanGod

13 years ago

Statcounter is something I've used for a while now, just on sites that I'd needed more immediate traffic data from. Google Failalytics was really more for long-term traffic stats.

Just to clarify - I'm not saying I can prove Google is responsible for anything. I'm merely saying I don't trust them at this point with my stats. All the time they spend talking about how important time on site is, and low and behold I give them that data in Analytics. They say they don't use the data, but what else would they say? It's the ultimate honey pot. They got a lot of us marketers using it and from that they can figure out what we're doing.

More importantly is - I don't really need Google Analytics. If there's a new domain I'm tracking and trying to improve, I can always use StatCounter and Awstats in cPanel admin. Months ago I did receive a warning from an seo guy to remove analytics from my sites. I discounted it then, but going from 150-200 unique's from Google A DAY on one domain down to 25 overnight, and then watching the rest of them follow suit told me everything I need to know.

I used to admire and like Google but unfortunately they're slipping. I think it's just a matter of time before someone challenges them, at least in search. Hopefully.. And if someone out there wants to know how to beat Google, I actually think it's simple. The "search spider or indexer". Google simply seems to index quicker and better than Bing. It's almost always a given that any new domain I setup will be indexed in Google, before Bing/Yahoo. That must change, before Bing can compete with Google. Microsoft needs an army of bots out there, much more active and I believe they could compete.

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Bongoshaq1 13 years ago

Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod

- I'm not saying I can prove Google is responsible for anything. I'm merely saying I don't trust them at this point with my stats. .

You should not trust anyone with your sites secret operational capability and keywords and data except yourself.:p
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Bongoshaq1

13 years ago

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briansmith84

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Bongoshaq1

Stop using Google Analytics for Good and here is why !

The biggest reason your site got hit because you are using Google Analytic s like a chronic drug addict. That is a Trojan Horse that you got used to and feed everyday with fresh data. All your data including your " new link building activity " is the domain of Google ! You have no idea how Google uses that data apart from what they show you and give you a small preview in your dashboard. That is for kiddies to look at..

But one thing is certain all your SERPS, search terms, bounce rates, social media traffic and above all you new links you have been building on forums, Web 2.0, and comments on sites are all available to the data crunching computers at Google central. Nothing is safe.

So what can you do here? You can install open sourced PIWIK available at piwik.com. This is a system that resides on your server on your hosting service and all your data is for your eyes only. Major corporations and Major sites ( as they are more sophisticated than average small site owners utilized Piwik with customized installations and interface). You don't need to do that. Piwik is fairly sophisticated on its own.

If you can't install piwik on your server hire a freelancer on Fivver.com for $5 and get it done. Otherwise you can install Free version of Statcounter from the statcounter.com and get those results. Statcounter is not that good but it will not spy on you.

Complete Dependence on Google Analytic is a site killer. If you are stupid enough to take candy from strangers you deserve to be penalized today and in the future.

I will try Piwik despite being a Statcounter fan for years. There is such a thing as innovation and improvement. The UI also looks interesting.

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Bongoshaq1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by briansmith84

I will try Piwik despite being a Statcounter fan for years. There is such a thing as innovation and improvement. The UI also looks interesting.

We use both Piwik and Statcounter. Personally I prefer piwik better as I can customize various widgets with data in it.

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tylerherman

13 years ago

Talk about jumping to conclusions...

Plenty of people's sites without Analytics and Webmaster Tools were hammered in the update. There is no correlation.

But go ahead and blame whatever you feel like. I think it was the CIA personally.

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briansmith84

13 years ago

Originally Posted by tylerherman

Talk about jumping to conclusions...

Plenty of people's sites without Analytics and Webmaster Tools were hammered in the update. There is no correlation.

But go ahead and blame whatever you feel like. I think it was the CIA personally.

Regardless of opinions, this fact still remains: By not having Analytics, we aren't missing out on much. There are other options, and I'd rather assume Google is corrupt in this regard (I love everything else about them) and use another tracking method, than to be wrong and have it hurt me. Better safe than sorry.

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John Romaine

13 years ago

This is an interesting discussion.

ALL of my sites seem to have been affected in some way or another, and whilst my traffic has pretty much remained the same, my time onsite has plummeted. I can only put this down to non relevant search queries.

Im not how they may have, or even if they did establish a relationship between my sites - but one things for sure, it wouldnt have been too hard given the use of GA and GWT.

HighPR - Did ALL of your 100 sites get hit?

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weheartcontent

13 years ago

I've always believed GA is evil.This thread confirmed my fears. I'd never set up GA on all of my sites.

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Tris

13 years ago

I might try this. Not sure if it's anything relevant to me but my main site has gone down from 700 unique a day down to 100, 200 max - using GA. I also think GA is so much less useful than it used to be. StatCounter you say? On my way...

Dam conspiracies. For me this all happened very suddenly about 3 days ago... I have never used ONE fake link and almost all my traffic is no longer coming in.

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ChanceNine

13 years ago

I deleted all my accounts from Google Analytics.

Did anybody's ranking went up after taking out Analytics codes?

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Viramara

13 years ago

Fortunately I don't install Webmaster tool out of strange incident. But I installed a Google Analytic. I think I want to delete the Analytic too after the Penguin.

So would you please tell me, if I delete the Analytic script....will it affect the rank??

Thanks
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briansmith84 13 years ago

I am liking Piwik. Still have a lot of preference tweaking to do, though not completely sold over Statcounter, however there is a bit of loyalty I need to overcome. I do like Piwik's widgets to setup a perfect homepage.
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sbucciarel

Banned 13 years ago

I deleted all my sites from G Webmaster last year and have never used Analytics. Never trusted them. Some people say it's a myth, but myth or not, I see no reason to volunteer any inside info about my sites other than a sitemap to tell them where my content is.

Statcounter is great for quick stats and AW Stats works great for more in depth stats. Analytics isn't necessary. In addition, I forget the name of it, but there is an non-Google open source analytics script out there somewhere that some people swear by.

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JeanneLynn

13 years ago

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

I deleted all my sites from G Webmaster last year and have never used Analytics. Never trusted them. Some people say it's a myth, but myth or not, I see no reason to volunteer any inside info about my sites other than a sitemap to tell them where my content is.

Statcounter is great for quick stats and AW Stats works great for more in depth stats. Analytics isn't necessary. In addition, I forget the name of it, but there is an non-Google open source analytics script out there somewhere that some people swear by.

This is how I feel too. I like AW Stats. The whole thing with Google Analytics may just be a myth, but I don't trust Google at all anymore. I'm not willing to take a risk that it may be true. Especially when I get everything I need from AW Stats already.

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JK Nyerere

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod

So I just deleted my Google Analytics account as well as emptied my entire Google Webmaster Account with all my sites.

Why?

This last week just about every site in my Google Analytics site was dropping like a stone with traffic. We're talking almost a 100 domains and NONE of them have any exotic linking b.s., whatever that is. I just did basic link trades which I hope Google has no outlawed. Anyway, it's obvious something was up. And no, not ever domain was related. I just simply don't trust Google any longer. Why do we think Google offers Analytics, if they're not using it against us. I simply don't want Google knowing anything my traffic and no longer will support their services.

I would guess my traffic must have dropped 65-76% across all of those domains on that Analytics account. Some of the sites were updated to kiss Google's ass, most had COMPLETELY RELEVANT CONTENT but it does not seem to matter. So I'm going to have to use StatCounter for the time being. Not sure my traffic stats really mean much in the long run when you think about it. Anyway, anyone else seen any change when getting rid of analytics?

I have have a lot of sites that were built before GA was around that too have suffered during this update. They did not have google analytics on them, but they too were penalized.

One thing I know though is that it is very difficult to maintain 100 or more quality websites. So the fact that you have more than 100 domains makes me wonder what the level of quality was on those sites.

You could be wasting your time on blaming GA when in fact it is just that your 100+ domains are just of a poor quality and not desired by Google.

Link trades by the way have been against Google webmaster guidelines for over a decade now.

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trytolearnmore

13 years ago

Dammit. I'm still on the fence on this one. I want to flip my websites on Flippa and Google Analytics adds some serious credibility. What do you think I should do?

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HigherPrThanGod

13 years ago

Originally Posted by trytolearnmore

Dammit. I'm still on the fence on this one. I want to flip my websites on Flippa and Google Analytics adds some serious credibility. What do you think I should do?

KEEP your Google analytics account, but remove the code from your pages and use some other counter/traffic program from this point forward. maybe that'll work

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Thinking_man_too 13 years ago

I eliminated my GA and webmaster tracking as well.

While some of my sites were "over optimized"(exact match keyword domain, keyword in the page title and h1 heading, etc. and 3% keyword density all of which apparently now is too much) i had a number of sites which were NEVER backlinked, all original content and not written for the serps. They all got killed.

The one thing they all had in common was they were all on the same GA and webmasters account with tracking codes.

OK fine I am de-SEOing a lot of the content to try to save the sites. But I am also doing it WITHOUT GA and webmaster. Too risky.

I had a few sites that had 30 or more keywords on the first page of google. Now the funny thing is that none of the exact match keyword pages rank for that keyword anymore but they are on the 2nd or 3rd page for a different keyword that the article has nothing to do with. I have this a lot now. Weird.
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ScrooG

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul M

So let me see if I have this right: You make important business decisions based off of projecting your own subjective judgement of morality on to an analytical tool and the huge conglomerate of an organization that provides it, then 'confirm' your suspicions by blindly accepting the unfounded conclusion of a third party on a forum full of anonymous people.

This decision making process seems to be fool proof. What could go wrong?

I think way too many conclusions are being draw in this thread based off the so far vague assumption that GA use correlates with Googles enforcement of wider changes. I personally see no evidence of that. The fact that many webmasters are experiencing similar changes while not using GA on all or any of their sites brings that conclusion in to question for a start.

-Paul

I have been reading about this latest google update and it's Draconian effects for 2 days now and I have read many anecdotal accounts of people with sites that had google analytics getting slapped down and sites without it being left alone (like from a guy with 12 sites, half with and half without). I don't see why anyone would like about it and it just makes sense that google would use its analytics to look at sites they want to punish. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence so no, it's not proven in a court of law yet but the evidence is plentiful enough to convince a jury of our peers.

If you take some time to read up on it, I think you'll see that there is a preponderance of evidence that using google analytics is probably not a good idea. Personally I am cutting as many ties with google as possible.

They are willy-nilly effing with people's lives, their businesses, their income. I wrote a blog about it yesterday so researching for it, I saw a lot of evidence of GOOGLE's NEW PENGUIN UPDATE being a very bad one both in terms of providing lousy search results for the average google user AND in terms of it punishing great sites while rewarding lousy sites. Do some reading around the net and come to your own conclusions but I am 100% convinced after doing just that, that using Google Analytics is foolish.

A) You don't NEED Google Analytics - there are other analytics to use
B) Why make it easy for Google to see every thing you do? It's like putting a live 24 hour web cam up in your living room and hoping no one will watch it and use that surveilance to hurt you.

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TamilYoung

13 years ago

Are you planning to add your sites again to GA in future? If we have some great content, do we need to panic again? Google slapping this time with GA is something most of the marketers have not expected.

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Wolster

13 years ago

I had a similar experience. Although I was split testing at the time.

I had 8 sites with GA and 8 with Statcounter. The 8 with GA have all more or less taken a nose dive, and those with Statcounter are still round about at the same level.

I know 16 sites is not a lot in a test, but there was still a significant difference in the results.

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seosoldier

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod

So I just deleted my Google Analytics account as well as emptied my entire Google Webmaster Account with all my sites.

Why?

This last week just about every site in my Google Analytics site was dropping like a stone with traffic. We're talking almost a 100 domains and NONE of them have any exotic linking b.s., whatever that is. I just did basic link trades which I hope Google has no outlawed. Anyway, it's obvious something was up. And no, not ever domain was related. I just simply don't trust Google any longer. Why do we think Google offers Analytics, if they're not using it against us. I simply don't want Google knowing anything my traffic and no longer will support their services.

I would guess my traffic must have dropped 65-76% across all of those domains on that Analytics account. Some of the sites were updated to kiss Google's ass, most had COMPLETELY RELEVANT CONTENT but it does not seem to matter. So I'm going to have to use StatCounter for the time being. Not sure my traffic stats really mean much in the long run when you think about it. Anyway, anyone else seen any change when getting rid of analytics?

I feel your pain! I have one site that I have built for two years and I just got it a few months ago to where I was making $1k a month.

I was ranking on page one for 5 of about 8 main keywords, for months.

As of April 25th those keywords I got my site ranked on page one for, are now on pages 5 through 30. In fact my home page which was at #4 on page one of Google is now on page #30!

This is a very content-heavy site and everyone who has looked at it agrees it deserves high ranking, Even Google did for many months. But not anymore.

So I spent a couple hours today writing a blog, sticking it to Google. Does no good but made me feel a lot better! I would have spent the time SEO'ing my site or adding content or something to make my sites come back up the ranks... but I have no clue what google wants us to do at this point.

All I know is Google is taking $ out of my pockets, for no good reason (my site met the standard they kept pushing: "Content is king!").

And so I have also removed google analytics and unsubscribed to webmaster tools and I plan to stop using google as a search engine as much as possible and stop using Chrome, Adwords, etc.

I encourage others to do the same. Google is evil.

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christopherk

13 years ago

Yes, I agree, Google is evil and dishonest. I will Never ever use Google Analytics and Webmaster tools anymore!
However, Google is the biggest and I need traffic from Google :confused:

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cooler1

13 years ago

I didn't think using Google Analytics had any bearing on how they ranked your site and thought it was one of those myths, but I realised that the 3 of my sites which weren't negetively effected by the Penguin update aren't on Analytics, but the sites that are on Analytics have moved way way down the SERPs to the point of not being able to see them. Really odd.

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essmeier

13 years ago

None of my sites are listed in Google Analytics anymore, but that didn't prevent them from taking 800 of them out of their index last week.

Don't really know what they're doing, but it's been brutal.

Charlie

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Luffe

13 years ago

Wow, Piwik looks so cool , gonna install it now...

What about Feedburner, should i drop using that too ?

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BackLinkiT 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Luffe

Wow, Piwik looks so cool , gonna install it now...

What about Feedburner, should i drop using that too ?

Ask yourself who owns feedburner...

Next question...is it worth the risk?
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Christophe Young

13 years ago

If you've been lurking around the SEO forum you'd see there was a major Google algo change last week. My main site also suffered big time. According to GA, down to 25 visits a day after averaging 200 per day for the last year. Don't know what's going on or what to do now. I never did anything Black Hat to increase rankings and it's got lots of great content. I can't imagine being signed up to Google Analytics would have anything to do with it.

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HigherPrThanGod

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Christophe Young

If you've been lurking around the SEO forum you'd see there was a major Google algo change last week. My main site also suffered big time. According to GA, down to 25 visits a day after averaging 200 per day for the last year. Don't know what's going on or what to do now. I never did anything Black Hat to increase rankings and it's got lots of great content. I can't imagine being signed up to Google Analytics would have anything to do with it.

One thing I seem to be noticing is exact match domains might not be as important in rankings anymore? I've noticed within the last month that I seem to be competing more with sub-pages, rather than full fledged domains. And yet this may also depend on the niche you're in and the SEO of your competitors? I dunno, things are crazy right now.

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dmtaylor247 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Christophe Young

My main site also suffered big time. According to GA, down to 25 visits a day after averaging 200 per day for the last year.

LOL I don't think that's too bad, I was averaging around 10,000 vistors a day and now I'm down to none hahahahahaha
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JeffHylands

13 years ago

I have sites on Analytics that were not hit from this update, this last month actually has been great for my rankings, I build them slow and steady with various methods for diversity and link variations. I honestly think Google would trust sites more that use their tools we have nothing to hide but I could be wrong.

Im purchasing a website in the next month that gets over 15,000 visitors a month with an average time of 2 and a half minutes on site. I build sites to flip overtime I really don't want those stats to disappear if I were to leave Google Tools because in my experience past stats equal more money.

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mraffiliate

13 years ago

Originally Posted by JeffHylands

I have sites on Analytics that were not hit from this update, this last month actually has been great for my rankings, I build them slow and steady with various methods for diversity and link variations. I honestly think Google would trust sites more that use their tools we have nothing to hide but I could be wrong.

Im purchasing a website in the next month that gets over 15,000 visitors a month with an average time of 2 and a half minutes on site. I build sites to flip overtime I really don't want those stats to disappear if I were to leave Google Tools because in my experience past stats equal more money.

Hey Jeff,
I was thinking the same thing that using Google's tools such as Analytics, webmaster tools, etc. may build trust with Google since you are willing to be open with your sites.

I have several personal and client sites on both analytics and webmaster tools and my sites were not affected by the latest algorithm updates. In fact I have been able to fix HTML problems and other issues with my sites due to the information provided in my webmaster tools account.

The only thing I'm thinking of doing is having a separate analytics / tools account for each site instead of having all sites under one account.

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sonicadam123

13 years ago

I'm not defending GA or GWT .. because really I can't trust Google as far as I could throw them.

They've been getting fined lately for stuff that's pretty damn uncool and I think of them more as hypocritic in general ...

The problem here is penguin ... my sites been hit hard .. but now I seem to be ranking for stupid search terms that aren't even anything related to the articles that I write on my site.

Google need to sort out their act, but then again we don't have a good alternative for Search .. Bing and Yahoo are even worse in terms of relevance for me personally.

If there was a decent alternative for search so that we wouldn't have to rely on them I'd use it in a heart beat.

Thanks
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gapinfotechg 13 years ago

Its really very interesting topic for Google Analytics Account.. I really appreciated it always..
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Bongoshaq1

13 years ago

[DELETED]

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cooler1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Bongoshaq1

Getting Google Analytics on your sites is like wearing a Suicide vest with a short fuse. Sooner or later its gonna blow up.

You guys are smart but when it comes to Free Tools and dependence on those tools you can't think straight. You become emotionally attached to something that was given to you for a reason. Why would Google invest millions of dollars buying Urchin or whatever the name was before it became Google Analytics and give it to you free? It does not makes sense or does it ? Maintaining Google Analytics must be costing a penny to Google also and here you are using it free ? Why? Ask yourself these basic questions.

I am half as intelligent as you are, but I figured this out longtime ago, and as the saying goes there is NO FREE LUNCH. Everything has strings attached to it and it come comes loaded with ulterior motives in life. Life is full of these Trojans, when you get a bouquet of red roses you should wonder why those came to my door and why they are free. If you have not developed this sense of keen survival you will be long gone like the Dinosaurs and wiped off the face of Internet, you will give up and go back to flipping burgers on the beach.

Google paid millions for something that is FREE?. Oh really ? The facts may be quite contrary. All your site's data transfers back to Google Central where it is probably processed and your site gets ranked precisely in the SERPS. The more the information Google gets, the more accurate they can be about your sites content, links, bounce rates, social media traffic, and above all your precious keywords that are your life and blood and wallet money.

These are the same keywords that have now suddenly disappeared from page 1 to nowhere ? Thy must have been adjusted in some manner. If you provided less information and not used Google analytics you would be less severely affected. In that case, Google has to go around many hoops re-calculating your sites content and links an keywords. Its a tedious and costly affair without your volunteer work !

Many people who use GA also use Webmaster tools or Adsense.

Now Webmaster tools is a text file loaded in your header and it acts like Chattering Monkey on steroids broadcasting data back to Google central. That is how they tell you all about your site including your Keywords and search queries. Have you not figured that out by yourself yet ? Without webmaster tools the job may become much harder to figure out and find your data. This chattering Monkey would be rendered dead and completely useless.

I hope you stop your deadly addiction to free tools provided by people who control your livelihood or have the power to change it. There is no guarantee your sites will not be affected if you stayed away from these loaded Trojan horses but lesser you volunteer the better you would be.

If Google was your friend you wont be here reading this. Get on with it and change

That sounds like a load of hysteria to me.

What evidence do you have that Google has to go around "more hoops" to calculate your ranking if you don't use Analytics.

If there is NO FREE LUNCH, im guessing using PIWIK must have some strings attached to it then.

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dracoboar

13 years ago

Originally Posted by cooler1

That sounds like a load of hysteria to me.

What evidence do you have that Google has to go around "more hoops" to calculate your ranking if you don't use Analytics.

If there is NO FREE LUNCH, im guessing using PIWIK must have some strings attached to yet then.

I dont necessarily disagree with you but as I had said in an earlier post analytics is all risk with little reward.

If an alternative product can provide the same information then really why expose yourself to that risk. I GUARANTEE the day will come when things like bounce rate impacts serp rankings

Thanks
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cooler1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by dracoboar

I dont necessarily disagree with you but as I had said in an earlier post analytics is all risk with little reward.

If an alternative product can provide the same information then really why expose yourself to that risk. I GUARANTEE the day will come when things like bounce rate impacts serp rankings

I thought bounce rate already did impact SERP rankings?

Google Groups

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goosefrabah

13 years ago

Originally Posted by cooler1

That sounds like a load of hysteria to me.

What evidence do you have that Google has to go around "more hoops" to calculate your ranking if you don't use Analytics.

If there is NO FREE LUNCH, im guessing using PIWIK must have some strings attached to it then.

Well open source usually has no strings attached. Since you have your own database on your own server PIWIK there is no strings attached. They are not hosting it for you and they are not the same company that is the leader in the search engines.

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InternetMillions

13 years ago

I wonder if your traffic will go up after deleting em

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ronr 13 years ago

I don't know if it effects rankings or not but I just find GA not as user friendly and harder to interpret the data compared to statcounter.
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cooler1 13 years ago

Originally Posted by InternetMillions

I wonder if your traffic will go up after deleting em

I wonder if pigs will fly.
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Dinospider

Banned 13 years ago

I've recently changed all my sites from "Google Analytics" to "Get clicky" and actually experienced a rank increase with out doing any other extra SEO.

Not sure if it was just a simple coincidence but over 50 websites all doing better then when i had "Google Analytics" installed.

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kindsvater

13 years ago

Use Piwik instead of GA. Not only will your sites load faster, but for some marketers it is insane to give Google a list of your sites and your stats.

If you use Adsense then Google already has a list of your sites and some stats. Anything else is just a gift to G to that can later be used against you.

.

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Trevor M

13 years ago

Like many others in this thread, I've been on the edge of whether to delete GA or not for a while now. None of my websites make me much money currently so it never really affected me all that much.

But I think this thread has sent me over the edge.

Google is becoming too untrustworthy to continue using their services. It's time to move on.

Hello Stats Counter

- Trevor

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DonDavis

13 years ago

I have never understood why anybody would install Google Analytics. Made no sense to me whatsoever. There are very good alternatives available that are not connected to big bad G.

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goosefrabah

13 years ago

I just installed Piwik on my server two days ago. My sites load so much faster. Now they are totally loaded in 1.3-1.4 seconds. Which is down from 2.5-3.0 with analytics.

I did have an interesting encounter with webmaster tools the other day. I checked my one site and it was on page 18+ so I deleted my WMT. I checked 2-3 hours later and the same site was on page 7. It stayed like that for a day or so and went back to page 16 and is increasing. It got me curious if it was the removal because nothing else changed. Who knows.

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estateguy

13 years ago

It's way bigger than Google analytics and webmaster tools.

Google has wanted to move towards rewarding larger brand companies for years. Little guys like us don't feed them enough to buy the salad dressing for the Google campus cafeteria.

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retsek

13 years ago

So I suppose all of you nuts are taking off Adsense off your pages as well? Not gonna be using gonna Chrome or Android either? You're gonna hope and pray visitors don't click the back button to the SERPs after they land on your crappy page unsatisifed ? --- which by the way is WHAT THEY ACTUALLY MEASURE AND MAY USE AGAINST YOU.

If you actually think deleting WMT is gonna somehow hide data from Google, i don't know what to say. All it does is keep you in the dark.

Instead of the deleting WMT & removing GA, why don't you fix the actual issues with your site.

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wAvision

13 years ago

ive been using getclicky on my sites which i love, but still have GA code on them too...well did, i just deleted my GA profiles...the stats there in my personal experience seemed to be very flawed at best...lets see what happens

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Dellco 13 years ago

If a poll were to be conducted now about whether we can trust Google or not, the overwhelming majority would vote NO.

I guess you simply cannot trust Google, even if you're making money from them for years.

The bottom line is Google has proven unworthy of trust numerous times, and trust is not something you can easily gain once broken.
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JeffHylands

13 years ago

It is redicouls to think Google will punish only the sites using their Analytics, if anything you would think they want to reward people for using their services which isn't the case ether.... SEO is changing, links are decreasing in value, user stats, time on site bounce rates and social proof are where it's heading. Id love it if links were not the main factor anymore I honestly just want to focus on my site more instead of worrying about link building bs

Thanks
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webjedi

13 years ago

Originally Posted by JeffHylands

It is redicouls to think Google will punish only the sites using their Analytics, if anything you would think they want to reward people for using their services which isn't the case ether.... SEO is changing, links are decreasing in value, user stats, time on site bounce rates and social proof are where it's heading. Id love it if links were not the main factor anymore I honestly just want to focus on my site more instead of worrying about link building bs

Dude, you just lit a little tiny LED in my brain.
You are so right, good just did me a HUGE favor !
I don't have to jack around with getting backlinks, I can just make a kick ass site haha.
Backlinking was always so shady... glad I read that from you.

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Hilary

13 years ago

Another possible alternative to GA:
Web Log Storming PC Software with a 75% off Discount Coupon Code - View Traffic Stats in Extreme Detail
(Download your log files, and install this to analyse them.)

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braincandy7

13 years ago

I'm not really sure what difference GA and WMT is really going to make. All google is doing is reporting back to you what they already see for your benefit. The only thing that could possibly aid them is you adding site maps but all that does is makes it easier for them to find all your pages............which technically you would want the to do anyway if you want that page to rank.

They do not need you to have a GA or WMT account to be able to see your site and come to their own conclusions.

The one downside i personally see with GA is the occasional decrease in page load speed but thats about the only real impact i can see them having on your sites.

Don't get me wrong i'm not really a fan of google and personally would prefer to use independent products when and where i can. But this thread is starting to look a little bit hysterical now

Thanks
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dracoboar

13 years ago

Originally Posted by braincandy7

I'm not really sure what difference GA and WMT is really going to make. All google is doing is reporting back to you what they already see for your benefit. The only thing that could possibly aid them is you adding site maps but all that does is makes it easier for them to find all your pages............which technically you would want the to do anyway if you want that page to rank.

They do not need you to have a GA or WMT account to be able to see your site and come to their own conclusions.

The one downside i personally see with GA is the occasional decrease in page load speed but thats about the only real impact i can see them having on your sites.

Don't get me wrong i'm not really a fan of google and personally would prefer to use independent products when and where i can. But this thread is starting to look a little bit hysterical now

actually its not WMT or Analytics it is the code snippet you put on your website that feeds this information. W/O that code snippet much of the information is unavailable to google.

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Tim Franklin

13 years ago

The objection I have is that Google Analytics, is just not accurate, which logically tells me one thing that is undeniable, if it is not accurately tracking visitors just what is it doing.

I have been doing this for a long time so I have data as far back as 1997 sever logs, data that I analyze to see what happens over the years, the only data that I completely and absolutely trust comes from my own servers.

I used GA, as a tool to test out the difference between my own server based statistics and what I was seeing from Google Analytics, It soon become obvious that GA was up to something different, I have no proof, but I suspect that when you read the TOS you will see what they are doing.

Consider this if you were a multi Billion dollar corporation with corporate clients paying you millions of dollars for data, and often any kind of data is just fine, consumer data, small business data, data on the guy around the corner.

Its all for sale, and guess what, most people are giving to google free, when you open up a GA account read the TOS, and look at what your doing, literally you might be providing data to a large corporation about how they can offer products and services to your customers, (leaving you out in the cold, or at best paying you a few cents in comparison)

But what happens when a conflict arises...

What happens when you have a website that is doing better than one of those corporate websites, is it beyond your imagination that Google would Not use that data against your website, (really look at the TOS, and tell me they disclaim that)

Seriously guys, and gals, the single largest, most amazing mistake that many marketers make about Google is not realizing that Google a corporation first and a benevolent master second or even last.

I.E. Google is not your personal Yoda instructor...

As they say, its nothing personal its just business the sooner you realize that Google is not in business for your benefit, the better off you will be.

Google collects millions of dollars from advertisers.

Unless your one of those advertisers google does not even know you exist, unless your a member of GA that is.

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retsek

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Tim Franklin

The objection I have is that Google Analytics, is just not accurate, which logically tells me one thing that is undeniable, if it is not accurately tracking visitors just what is it doing.

I used GA, as a tool to test out the difference between my own server based statistics and what I was seeing from Google Analytics, It soon become obvious that GA was up to something different, I have no proof, but I suspect that when you read the TOS you will see what they are doing.

Uhhh I don't know ...maybe just maybe the javascript tracking that GA uses isn't able to pickup the thousands of scrappers, bots and other non-human visitors that are typically picked up by server statistics programs.

And while you're whining about anonymous data collection from GA, you do realize you can just turn off all data sharing in your account?

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mosthost

13 years ago

Comical thread. Next I suggest everyone here stops taking the 'free traffic' from Google too

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mbmehmet

13 years ago

I removed my analytics account after finding out that all my sites that were in webmaster tools and analytics were dropped like a bad habit on the 25th april. The only few that didn't drop were those using "getclicky" Never will I put my trust in google, never....

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awarum

13 years ago

I removed Google Analytics months ago only b/c didn't feel comfortable Google having all the information about website.

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Fernando Veloso

13 years ago

OP,

You're (at least) one year late.

Many IM'ers ditched GA/WMT etc long time ago. Reason? The same as yours... and private testings.

Anyway, this is NOT an easy topic, and I understand WHY some people (still) defend these scripts - and how they are useful in *some* cases, like people flippin sites, or for Adwords tracking.

But, as you'll see along the next months, you REALLY don't need them, and most probably you'll see an impact of NOT using them.

If you can, please get back to this thread in 2-4 months from now and update us with results.

P.S.: Before some of you start shouting at me "how will he know, it could be something else" etc etc etc, feel free to go on using these scripts. Or try to do some test on your own - especially with WMT and see what gives.

You're in for a surprise, I promise you.

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plsearch

13 years ago

Hogwash. I manage SEO for 50 different clients and big businesses and every one of them has analytics, webmaster tools, and conversion tracking installed. Only two of them lost any rankings whatsoever.

Google already knows what type of links your building and how good your content is without access. But, Google does like to see good time on site, low bounce rates, fast sites, and so on. This is proven with SEOmoz case studies.

So if you have solid design, usability, and you give your visitors what they want you have nothing to lose. I'd even go as far as to say that a site that has good analytics metrics is probably forgiven for other overly spammy practices used because they know your visitors are engaged and happy when they get to your site.

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Fadiz

13 years ago

Are you guys really comparing google analytics to statcounter

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mosthost

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Fadiz

Are you guys really comparing google analytics to statcounter

And Piwik too

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Fadiz

13 years ago

Originally Posted by mosthost

And Piwik too

LOL yeah sorry I forgot about Piwik.

Ok boys and girls, Google analytics is by far the best stats program around (free) and better than some paid programs. Now if you don't want to use it for whatever reason THAT'S OKAY but statcounter ???? really ??? at least use clicky Web Analytics in Real Time | Clicky

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HigherPrThanGod

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Fadiz

LOL yeah sorry I forgot about Piwik.

Ok boys and girls, Google analytics is by far the best stats program around (free) and better than some paid programs. Now if you don't want to use it for whatever reason THAT'S OKAY but statcounter ???? really ??? at least use clicky Web Analytics in Real Time | Clicky

I like Statcounter, my arrogant friend.

I like it because I don't have to get carpel tunnel just to see my stats FROM TODAY.

Also, I absolutely HATE the Google Failalytics interface. Specially the new interface.

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retsek

13 years ago

Another thing, with keyword "not provided" now up to about 40% for some of my sites, how are you people not using WMT gonna know what the hell people searched for to get your site?

The only way to get that data now is through WMT.

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HigherPrThanGod

13 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

Another thing, with keyword "not provided" now up to about 40% for some of my sites, how are you people not using WMT gonna know what the hell people searched for to get your site?

The only way to get that data now is through WMT.

The not provided are searches by logged in Google users.

And chances are it's simply the same percentage of your top keywords.

I saw it, got annoyed and then quickly realized it did not really matter.

I never used Google's webmaster tools, anyway. I just had some old domains in there that I thought I'd better delete.

It does make me curious as to why Google hides those keywords in Analytics but provides it in Webmaster Tools.

More Google BUUUUULCRAP.

by the way, the "NOT PROVIDED" only shows up in GOOGLE ANALYTICS.

I never see it in statcounter or AWSTATS.

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retsek

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod

The not provided are searches by logged in Google users.

And chances are it's simply the same percentage of your top keywords.

I saw it, got annoyed and then quickly realized it did not really matter.

I never used Google's webmaster tools, anyway. I just had some old domains in there that I thought I'd better delete.

It does make me curious as to why Google hides those keywords in Analytics but provides it in Webmaster Tools. They show in WMT, because you cant link keywords to a particular visitor.

More Google BUUUUULCRAP.

by the way, the "NOT PROVIDED" only shows up in GOOGLE ANALYTICS.

I never see it in statcounter or AWSTATS.

While "not provided" shows up in Analytics (the right way), other programs like statcounter will show logged-in search traffic as referrals. Piwik shows it right way as well by doing "Keyword not defined".

The data is hidden from Analytics because of privacy. The real reason is the close integration of Google+ and the SERPs.

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ericbryant

13 years ago

We saw this coming for a long time. What are some other solutions out there? Onr of our partners loves this one: Mint: A Fresh Look at your Site (<--not an affiliate link)

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OmarNegron

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod

So I just deleted my Google Analytics account as well as emptied my entire Google Webmaster Account with all my sites.

Why?

This last week just about every site in my Google Analytics site was dropping like a stone with traffic. We're talking almost a 100 domains and NONE of them have any exotic linking b.s., whatever that is. I just did basic link trades which I hope Google has no outlawed. Anyway, it's obvious something was up. And no, not ever domain was related. I just simply don't trust Google any longer. Why do we think Google offers Analytics, if they're not using it against us. I simply don't want Google knowing anything my traffic and no longer will support their services.

I would guess my traffic must have dropped 65-76% across all of those domains on that Analytics account. Some of the sites were updated to kiss Google's ass, most had COMPLETELY RELEVANT CONTENT but it does not seem to matter. So I'm going to have to use StatCounter for the time being. Not sure my traffic stats really mean much in the long run when you think about it. Anyway, anyone else seen any change when getting rid of analytics?

I haven't seen a big change yet, but I did remove all of the analytics and webmaster tools.

I too am using stat counter. It is simple and gets the job done.

I'm not trying to give G more information than I need to.

-Omar

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John F Kennedy

13 years ago

This is the very reason that I now no longer have google analytics or webmaster tools anywhere near my sites!

You are giving them way too much information!

I now have piwik (it's FREE)installed to analyze my data which works just as well as analytics ever did.

Here's the link Piwik - Web analytics - Open source

Good luck

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ethan97

13 years ago

I have always wondered....they say bounce rate is a big deal to Google. Without GA installed, how do they figure your bounce rate? I know one thing is if someone clicks your link in the SERPS and then hits the back page they look at how long they were on your page, but apart from that, how do they know how long people stay on your site?

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Lonew0lf

13 years ago

I've switched to OWA Open Web Analytics and have never looked back! We all need to collectively rebel against Google just like Google has turned on us we can turn on it! Never ever never will I ever hand my precious analytical data to a for profit corporation especially one as big and as cynical as Google. I get traffic from all kinds of sources why the fudge should I voluntarily hand that precious data to Google? Cause they simply offer me a free log viewer? Not anymore! I urge everyone to move away from anything Google period! A lot of open source software have matured enough to replace anything google does. Don't be cheap when it come to your precious data and your privacy. Get yourself a cheap hosting account or better yet a VPS server and load it up with your own set of tools! Get your own damn domain for email away for the prying eyes of Google and it's people. Remember we too can play dirty! Don't give Google anything!!!

Rant over and I feel better!

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andreasup

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Lonew0lf

I've switched to OWA Open Web Analytics and have never looked back! We all need to collectively rebel against Google just like Google has turned on us we can turn on it! Never ever never will I ever hand my precious analytical data to a for profit corporation especially one as big and as cynical as Google. I get traffic from all kinds of sources why the fudge should I voluntarily hand that precious data to Google? Cause they simply offer me a free log viewer? Not anymore! I urge everyone to move away from anything Google period! A lot of open source software have matured enough to replace anything google does. Don't be cheap when it come to your precious data and your privacy. Get yourself a cheap hosting account or better yet a VPS server and load it up with your own set of tools! Get your own damn domain for email away for the prying eyes of Google and it's people. Remember we too can play dirty! Don't give Google anything!!!

Rant over and I feel better!

Great points W0lf. Ultimately at the end of the day we all have to make our decisions based on the excellent pros and cons which have been provided in this thread. Google isn't all good and it isn't all bad. It may work fine for some and be deadly for others.

At the end of the day we have to all do what we think is best for your sites and our business. Not to mention out sanity.

We do all have to remember that the Google of 2012 is not the Google of the early days when a few college duds were hanging around trying to figure out search. Those days are gone forever and those two original Google guys are now billionaires. Something to think about when making your own decisions.

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27coupons

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HigherPrThanGod

So I just deleted my Google Analytics account as well as emptied my entire Google Webmaster Account with all my sites.

Why?

This last week just about every site in my Google Analytics site was dropping like a stone with traffic. We're talking almost a 100 domains and NONE of them have any exotic linking b.s., whatever that is. I just did basic link trades which I hope Google has no outlawed. Anyway, it's obvious something was up. And no, not ever domain was related. I just simply don't trust Google any longer. Why do we think Google offers Analytics, if they're not using it against us. I simply don't want Google knowing anything my traffic and no longer will support their services.

I would guess my traffic must have dropped 65-76% across all of those domains on that Analytics account. Some of the sites were updated to kiss Google's ass, most had COMPLETELY RELEVANT CONTENT but it does not seem to matter. So I'm going to have to use StatCounter for the time being. Not sure my traffic stats really mean much in the long run when you think about it. Anyway, anyone else seen any change when getting rid of analytics?

From April 27th 4 of my website have lost more 80% of their traffic. None of the things present or done in the website violate any guidelines of Google

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mrgood

13 years ago

I've also deleted today (after reading this thread) one of mine analytics account for a website with most traffic of my 4 websites. I switched over to piwik. My visitors are cut to only 35-40 % from 27th April. I used to have 1000 UV daily, and now I have only 350-400.
I'll see if this analytics deletion would get me back my visitors

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retsek

13 years ago

Originally Posted by mrgood

I've also deleted today (after reading this thread) one of mine analytics account for a website with most traffic of my 4 websites. I switched over to piwik. My visitors are cut to only 35-40 % from 27th April. I used to have 1000 UV daily, and now I have only 350-400.
I'll see if this analytics deletion would get me back my visitors

Are you serious??!!!

*bangs head*

Deleting analytics is ***NOT*** going to bring your rankings back. It won't hide ***ANYTHING*** from Google that they need to rank your site appropriately in their SERPS.

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1 reply

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mrgood

13 years ago

Originally Posted by retsek

Are you serious??!!!

*bangs head*

Deleting analytics is ***NOT*** going to bring your rankings back. It won't hide ***ANYTHING*** from Google that they need to rank your site appropriately in their SERPS.

I've done the analysis of the site. Homepage has the same google ranking as before, as well as other pages on my site. There is simply no explanation why my visit is cutted to 40 % of my previous visit.
This analytics stuff seems as only logical explanation to me.
I will report here whats happening with my site visits after a few days since I remove analytics code today.

Thanks
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cooler1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by mrgood

I've done the analysis of the site. Homepage has the same google ranking as before, as well as other pages on my site. There is simply no explanation why my visit is cutted to 40 % of my previous visit.
This analytics stuff seems as only logical explanation to me.
I will report here whats happening with my site visits after a few days since I remove analytics code today.

The Penguin stuff seems the only logical explanation to me.

Originally Posted by mrgood

I've also deleted today (after reading this thread) one of mine analytics account for a website with most traffic of my 4 websites. I switched over to piwik. My visitors are cut to only 35-40 % from 27th April. I used to have 1000 UV daily, and now I have only 350-400.
I'll see if this analytics deletion would get me back my visitors

Thanks

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GeorgR.

13 years ago

Absurd to delete analytics or webmaster tools, based on nothing else than a bizarre assumption that it would help anything.

Analytics or WMT is not the reason your sites dropped, and where is even a remote evidence that deleting the accs would bring rankings back?

Now Webmaster tools is a text file loaded in your header and it acts like Chattering Monkey on steroids broadcasting data back to Google central. That is how they tell you all about your site including your Keywords and search queries. Have you not figured that out by yourself yet ? Without webmaster tools the job may become much harder to figure out and find your data.

You seriously believe a multibillion dollar company like Google who has 1000s of bots running which spider the web etc...needs some script installed on your site to get their data for helping them assess your site? Do you know anything at all how search engines even work?

Just shaking my head here...

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Fadiz

13 years ago

THANK YOU. finally someone with common sense replying to this post

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Absurd to delete analytics or webmaster tools, based on nothing else than a bizarre assumption that it would help anything.

Analytics or WMT is not the reason your sites dropped, and where is even a remote evidence that deleting the accs would bring rankings back?

You seriously believe a multibillion dollar company like Google who has 1000s of bots running which spider the web etc...needs some script installed on your site to get their data for helping them assess your site? Do you know anything at all how search engines even work?

Just shaking my head here...

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Chrisbroholm

13 years ago

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Absurd to delete analytics or webmaster tools, based on nothing else than a bizarre assumption that it would help anything.

Analytics or WMT is not the reason your sites dropped, and where is even a remote evidence that deleting the accs would bring rankings back?

You seriously believe a multibillion dollar company like Google who has 1000s of bots running which spider the web etc...needs some script installed on your site to get their data for helping them assess your site? Do you know anything at all how search engines even work?

Just shaking my head here...

I'm sort of in the same camp as you, but I recently decided to get rid of analytics and WMT as well.

1) There are free alternatives that does the job fine. I just use statcounter and I'm very happy with it

2) EVEN if google does have access to all your stats, which I don't believe by the way, they cannot know which sites you own. Adding all your sites to the same WMT and Analytics accounts simply provides google a footprint, that could leave you open to bulk penalization.

Personally I think the whole thing is a bit of a hoax, I mean there is no way Google gives a free tool just to spy on people, right? I certainly wouldn't think so, but with free alternatives - why run the risk?

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mosthost

13 years ago

I guess nobody here uses Chrome, Android, PageRank, Gmail, or YouTube. Google is EVERY WHERE.

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tex001

13 years ago

If you know what's good for you and you are doing any kind of SEO or link building I would stop using Google Analytics with immediate effect!

It is my belief that Google is using the SEO data that this tool collects AGAINST WEBMASTERS!!!

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mraffiliate

13 years ago

Originally Posted by tex001

If you know what's good for you and you are doing any kind of SEO or link building I would stop using Google Analytics with immediate effect!

It is my belief that Google is using the SEO data that this tool collects AGAINST WEBMASTERS!!!

Do you think Google needs you to have an analytics or webmasters tools account for them collect data about your site(s)? Google collects this same data regardless if you sign up for and use any of their tools.

The code you install on your sites just lets you see the data that Google has already collected on your sites.

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codecreative

13 years ago

I have a few new sites some are using ga and some are using Piwik. My hosts are excellent they provide one click installs for various stat counters Piwik is one as well as one click installs for wordpress, joomla, phpbb, 10 search engine submission etc

I'll see how they fare with similar levels of backlinking and strenght of keyword comp

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John F Kennedy

13 years ago

I took this stance over a year ago and see my sites were in better shape in a matter of weeks..

Now use Piwik, does all I need and more.

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cagliostro

13 years ago

Guys removing Google Analytics doesn't help at all if you are also using Adsense (most do). Adsense by itself provides all data Google needs.

So you also delete Adsense ?

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Deleted My Google Analytics and Webmaster Account

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