Google's Free Tools

13 years ago

I don't trust them for my adsense sites and don't ever use GA or GWT on them.

But I do use them on other sites that don't rely on Google for organic search traffic.

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

I don't trust them for my adsense sites and don't ever use GA or GWT on them.

But I do use them on other sites that don't rely on Google for organic search traffic.

That makes sense. Using Adsense would be THREE Google programs all running on one website. Seems like too much info for them.

I've been using Piwik on new sites and NOT submitting to GWT. I don't trust Google very much these days.

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gabibeowulf

13 years ago

In short, yes. I do trust them. Do you really think not using Google services will somehow prevent a penalty? .. or even more than that, reverse it? If that were true, the webmasters that didn't use Google service would've thrived in the Panda updates, while all the others would have been punished for it.

- Gabriel

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by gabibeowulf

In short, yes. I do trust them. Do you really think not using Google services will somehow prevent a penalty? .. or even more than that, reverse it? If that were true, the webmasters that didn't use Google service would've thrived in the Panda updates, while all the others would have been punished for it.

- Gabriel

I really started trusting them less after they took the referers away. They don't even want to give us accurate data any more.

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Marketing Fool

13 years ago

Originally Posted by gabibeowulf

In short, yes. I do trust them. Do you really think not using Google services will somehow prevent a penalty? .. or even more than that, reverse it? If that were true, the webmasters that didn't use Google service would've thrived in the Panda updates, while all the others would have been punished for it.

- Gabriel

It may not prevent...but it will certainly prolong...if not using Google products gives me a month, week, or even a day longer before they get around to penalizing me or de-indexing me, then I'm going to take it!

Besides...why use them? Piwik is fine for analytics...and GWT has always been mostly useless.

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

It may not prevent...but it will certainly prolong...if not using Google products gives me a month, week, or even a day longer before they get around to penalizing me or de-indexing me, then I'm going to take it!

Besides...why use them? Piwik is fine for analytics...and GWT has always been mostly useless.

True. Piwik has gotten a lot better and is very easy to use. GWT doesn't really tell you all that much.

It's not like you get a direct benefit from using the tools.

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Jose Princely

13 years ago

yes of course they benefit all website owners who can't spend on premium tools. Google free tolls are enough to run any big and any number of websites.

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webmasteradam111

13 years ago

Google free tools helpful for targeting Google SERP.

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PerformanceMan 13 years ago

Originally Posted by webmasteradam111

Google free tools helpful for targeting Google SERP.

How so? I'd love to know
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wlasikiewicz

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

Do you think there's any advantage to using Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools?

Sure they have some features that are useful, but do you trust them to have all that data about your website?

To be honest with you, if there were no advantage in using them Google wouldnt have had them developed.

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MikeFriedman

13 years ago

I'm just confused. What data do you think Google acquires through GA and GWT to use against you that they do not already have?

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

I'm just confused. What data do you think Google acquires through GA and GWT to use against you that they do not already have?

They don't know certain info about you if you don't use Analytics. They can guess 'time on site' from Chrome or other metrics, but they won't know for sure. They can't be exactly sure how many pages a visitors consumes. They won't have a clue what 31% of all searchers who come from Yahoo and Bing are doing.

The GWT is not as big of a deal, expect it helps them to identify all the websites you're running. There isn't much of a payoff for using it either so I tend to steer clear.

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MikeFriedman

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

They don't know certain info about you if you don't use Analytics. They can guess 'time on site' from Chrome or other metrics, but they won't know for sure. They can't be exactly sure how many pages a visitors consumes. They won't have a clue what 31% of all searchers who come from Yahoo and Bing are doing.

Ok, but don't you think if they cannot obtain the same information about every website then they don't use it in the algorithm? To me it just doesn't make sense that they would incorporate information for just a very small percentage of sites. It would not make much sense to me that they would rank site A based criteria X, Y, and Z, but site B, in the same SERP, is ranked on X, Y, Z as well as additional data.

The biggest thing sites are getting punished for in the rankings is content (Panda) and backlinks (Penguin). Google has all of that information whether you use GA and GWT or not.

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

The GWT is not as big of a deal, expect it helps them to identify all the websites you're running. There isn't much of a payoff for using it either so I tend to steer clear.

That's only if you put them all under the same account.

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paulgl

13 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

I'm just confused. What data do you think Google acquires through GA and GWT to use against you that they do not already have?

Confusion seems to be masquerading here as expertise.

People say all sorts of nonsense about GWT. As if not using
it means you're safe. How about following the rules and reading
what they publish?

GA and GWT are there to help you succeed. Some people love it,
hate it, like it, don't care, etc. But to say it has nefarious undertones
is crazy. Emphasis on nefarious.

Paul

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by paulgl

Confusion seems to be masquerading here as expertise.

People say all sorts of nonsense about GWT. As if not using
it means you're safe. How about following the rules and reading
what they publish?

GA and GWT are there to help you succeed. Some people love it,
hate it, like it, don't care, etc. But to say it has nefarious undertones
is crazy. Emphasis on nefarious.

Paul

Google doesn't publicly disclose how they use that information anywhere. That's nefarious!

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jacks9871

13 years ago

yes....i think Google free tools helpful. all website owners who can't spend on premium tools. Google free tolls are enough to run any big and any number of websites...

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jfambrini

13 years ago

I use Google Webmaster tools but avoid Google Analytics as that is considered the culprit by many. There is no proof but one got to be careful. Wondering if Piwik can be installed on a shared web hosting account?

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MikeFriedman 13 years ago

Originally Posted by jfambrini

There is no proof but one got to be careful.

I think that about says it right there.
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engagedotscrm

13 years ago

I always prefer using google web master tool.

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jfambrini

13 years ago

No proof but yes persistent rumours that once they have penalized your site they can use Google Analytics against you.

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

I think part of what turned me off to Google was those 'unnatural links' messages they sent through GWT. They seem like Big Brother telling us that they are watching all our data.

If you get 31% of your traffic from other search engines and 5% from social that means Google doesn't know that much about 37% of your traffic. If you install all their free tools you're giving them the complete picture!

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MikeFriedman

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

I think part of what turned me off to Google was those 'unnatural links' messages they sent through GWT. They seem like Big Brother telling us that they are watching all our data.

All GWT did was let people know why their rankings went in the shitter. People still got hit by the same thing, they just didn't know it because they weren't using GWT.

It wasn't only people who had GWT and used low quality links that got hit. Google has the complete picture on your links whether you are using GWT or not.

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

If you get 31% of your traffic from other search engines and 5% from social that means Google doesn't know that much about 37% of your traffic. If you install all their free tools you're giving them the complete picture!

Unless that traffic is coming from porn or illegal sites, I'm not really sure what it is you are hiding from.

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

All GWT did was let people know why their rankings went in the shitter. People still got hit by the same thing, they just didn't know it because they weren't using GWT.

It wasn't only people who had GWT and used low quality links that got hit. Google has the complete picture on your links whether you are using GWT or not.

Unless that traffic is coming from porn or illegal sites, I'm not really sure what it is you are hiding from.

I'm hiding from Google. They don't need to know everything. They don't send me bonus traffic for giving them more data to sell to their advertisers so I keep it to myself.

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MikeFriedman

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

I'm hiding from Google. They don't need to know everything. They don't send me bonus traffic for giving them more data to sell to their advertisers so I keep it to myself.

And that is fine. If it is a privacy issue, that makes sense.

It's the people who think using GA and GWT will negatively impact their rankings that I do not understand.

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jbyte

13 years ago

What about having adsense on your sites, would this not be almost the same as GA.

Sorry, I really haven't though much about this, but it's interesting to read the comments.

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PerformanceMan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by jbyte

What about having adsense on your sites, would this not be almost the same as GA.

Sorry, I really haven't though much about this, but it's interesting to read the comments.

Adsense is the same thing. They can use that code to track all activity on your website. With Adsense, at least, they pay you for the privilege.

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jfambrini

13 years ago

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

I think part of what turned me off to Google was those 'unnatural links' messages they sent through GWT. They seem like Big Brother telling us that they are watching all our data.

If you get 31% of your traffic from other search engines and 5% from social that means Google doesn't know that much about 37% of your traffic. If you install all their free tools you're giving them the complete picture!

Agree with you but unfortunately most sites get over 95% of their traffic from Google. It is hard to wean people out of Google.