Pro/Cons of JUST using Google Analytics
-
I find myself in a situation where I am having to defend why purely relying on just Google Analytics for site data i.e. exit pages, keywords, bounce rate etc... is not good practise.
So I thought/wondered if other people have come up against this.
What are the Pro and Cons for ONLY using Google Analytics for your site data....
-
Totally agree using more than one tool is about verifying data! This is the argument I am trying to make but making sure I come up with a good list of points....
What tool(s) do you use?
-
I find Google Analytics very useful for understanding traffic and conversion KPIs, for Adwords analysis, and management reporting. I took a liking to it when I started out because it so easy to set up and one can collect visitor data in a matter of minutes.
However, I do not use it exclusively because I'm not comfortable with relying on just Google. It's a reliable service but I do remember an issue that caused reports with data from April 2011 to return 0 visits. Some of my friends are also not at peace with Google having access to their site data. Using another site data tool alongside GA also allows one to verify the data need ed for reporting.
-
cause i check impressions and my link list with WMT and the GA for visits, time on site, and goal conversion.
If only they had 1 place to check all 5 lol....
but I'm sure if you wanted more macro data then the other features are useful.
-
Not arguing GA is not the best/good etc... It's about only using GA. You yourself admit you use WMA.... Why don't you just use GA?
-
Why would you not use Google Web Master tools as well? I personal opinion is that Google info is as good as it gets. While it may not show everything I feel it gives you a good idea of what Google feels is important and looks at on a frequent basis.
the only stats i really look at is time on site, visits, and goal conversion. maybe cause my site is till new but I dont really need any other fancy tools.
I personally also only use WMT and Analytics. Nothing seems to index as fast as Google... obviously
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google smacked my site and dropped all rankings, can't find out why
I have checked out everything, I mean everything. We have no dupe content, our content is a little thin, but it is ours and accurate enough to help our customers.We follow all SEO guidelines and make sure we de-index any pages with no / little content (like privacy, or faq) All in all, we haven't done any major updates to the sites, and everything was great (page one on almost all kw) but beginning of the month, all kw wiped to the second page, than third, than back to one and now pretty much gone (rank 100-200) I really don't know what to do. We didn't receive a manual action, and the last algo update was nothing big to cause such a drastic change. Meanwhile our competition (multiple sites) are gaining in ranks and nothing happened to them (most of them have even less content and not even SSL) Negative SEO is out of question, I check all links via ahrefs every other day. Any help is appreciated Thanks
Search Behavior | | s-s0 -
Privacy Policy requirements for Demos and Interests in Google Analytics
I have a client who is activating the Demographics and Interests in Google Analytics, and I need to provide an appropriate privacy policy, per Google's TOS. Can anybody suggest what to state in the privacy policy? Google says: "If you’ve implemented Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, you must also disclose in your privacy policy: How you use data from Google's Interest-based advertising or 3rd-party audience data (such as age, gender, and interests) with Google Analytics." So, I guess it's advisable to state that the site gathers "3rd-party audience data." Is it enough to say that the info is being used to better understand and communicate with the website visitor?
Search Behavior | | jrae0 -
Industry Benchmarks for Google Analytics
Hey Mozites! I was wondering if anyone has come across any good resources for industry benchmarks relating to google analytics? (Social stats would be great as well, but Google Analytics is my main concern) Specifically, I have a client that is a bank and I would love to be able to compare their stats (traffic, unique visitors, bounce rate, time on site, conversion rates...) to other regional banks. Any ideas? Thanks for reading and for your help!
Search Behavior | | iBecC0 -
Are there better & inexpensive third party website analytics software over Google Analytics?
I've heard there are some third-party software that provide greater depth of information than Google Analytics, such as mouse tracking, heat mapping, video snapshots ect. Can anyone recommend a good program to use? I've tried a basic web-search but there seems to be a great variety of different ones.
Search Behavior | | Justin_hannan270 -
Google Analytics Search Engine Optimisation Report
Hello, Quick question. How much data should be available within Google Analytics within the Search Engine Optimisation Reports? I was always of the impression it was 6 months, however the data available as of this date only extends back to January 1st 2013. Thanks,
Search Behavior | | HelloAlba0 -
Using Google Analytics to See What Time of Day Visitors View My Site
Hi folks, My company has Google Analytics setup for all of our websites, but I am a bit stumped on something. Now, this may not be possible, but am I able to see what time of day visitors most frequently view my blog? I would like to optimize blog post publishing for when I know we have in influx of visitors, yet I cannot find this information on GA. Any input would be much appreciated. Regards,
Search Behavior | | Instabill
Meghan0 -
Google Location - Taking Away Our National Reach?
Hey, I was just noticing that we achieve #2 ranking on Google for one of our customers for one of their primary keyword phrases. But then I noticed the traffic analytics were not matching what we should expect from that keyword phrase. Then I noticed, in using "Chrome's Incognito Window", that our location was automatically selected for our main geographical city area. I then went and changed that location from Denver, to San Diego & Also Chicago, just to see what would happen, and I noticed we instantly dropped from #2 to #7 when changing our location. I don't know what my question is, but I guess I feel like that is preventing us from achieving the results we need to sell ecommerce products. Is there any info on this or suggestions anyone has on how to tackle this issue? It feels like Google is pulling the rug out from underneath our feet and trying to spread rankings more to localized areas, rather than offering someone the opportunity to capitalize on good rankings for a national audience. I understand why they would do it, and I don't say I disagree. But it just seems to affect our work as SEO's doesn't it? Since we can't be as effective for customers that have a global audience instead of strictly a localized one. I'm curious to see what people have to say about this issue. Thanks!
Search Behavior | | JerDoggMckoy0 -
Geo-targeting / Presenting Unique Content
A client is debating housing two websites under one URL. The sites would offer similar services at different price points. For example, if a user was coming from a San Fran IP they would be presented with the "high-end" packages while another user coming from Dallas would get the "low budget" content. What are the SEO implications? I know that auto geo-targeting can sometimes be risky. It seems like IP locators aren't accurate all the times (especially from a mobile device). Advise? Basically, the client wants to make sure that a Dallas user will be presented with the "right" keywords in the SERPs. What would you recommend? Thanks!
Search Behavior | | lhc670