Google Analytics affects serps?
 

Hi

I've recently added analytics to some of my mainstream sites (post penguin update) and a day or two after i've seen some dramatic shifts in traffic. some sites have risen and some dropped - i also made some minor changes to the sites so i'm trying to figure out what's happened. has anyone else experienced this after adding analtyics. I know this shouldn't have an effect but google have a lot more info on your site with analytics installed and maybe this is factored into their algorythm.

never use GA again....

YES. It will affect your sites. Don't believe me? Well, try it our for yourself and find out.

After many years of testing it with different sites I found out that it will affect the sites dramatically.

I have said this for years in other forums and people just laughed at me saying that I didn't know what I was talking about. Then I saw that same people come here and whine suspecting that GA had affected their sites traffic and saw a 50% decrese in traffic.

Period.

yepp. and it sucks.

Of course it does. That's why real webmasters handle their own stats.

I stay clear of it :pimp

what about google webmaster tools? ;)

Obviously Googles primary focus is to create tools and then make everyone terrified to use them and make webmasters hate them. Thats just good business sense.

I dont really beleive it, but who knows

Also don't use it. I don't need all my shit neatly bundled up for Google to fuck with in one fell swoop.

same shit as GA

Google's primary focus is search. Their goal is to sell ads by getting traffic and they get traffic by returning the best search results they can, correct? So if they have information, from GA or elsewhere, that tells them a certain site is a good result for a certain search, it would make sense for them to use that information. Conversely, if they have information, from whatever source, indicating that a site is not a good match for a search, using that information could also improve their search results.

I don't use it.. never have...probably never will... in stead I use xclicks, statscounter to get an idea of my SE traffic etc

bang. you answered your own question.

"If the product's free, YOU are the product".

Google creates those tools to gather information they use to improve their SE (aka their ad platform aka source of income).

Obviously. It would seem obvious that analytics doesn't automatically hurt a sites ranking. In fact, if you're site deserves to be there to begin with, then it stands to reason that it would help.

I always find it strange when webmasters talk about the position a site "deserves". Most would not doubt argue that their sites deserve a high ranking and those of their competitors don't "deserve" to be where they are.

Sites have no inherent value or right to anything. Google has a responsibility to its shareholders. I have a responsibility to my business. Putting GA on a site involves a certain amount of risk. A risk I won't take no matter how flashy Google's tools become.

I try to make money online and Google tries to make money online. At the end of the day they're still one of my competitors. A competitor with a a lot more capital than me. There's no way I'm going to give up information that could help them and harm me.

I've noticed that you like to end a lot of your posts with "Period." I'm not bitching about it, just saying that I notice it!

Exclamation! :upsidedow

Adding GA to my sites did not negatively affect my traffic. I used Webalizer for years and ran both concurrently for a while. I will say that Webalizer or other log-based stats will show traffic that GA doesn't (javascript ignoring browsers, wget scripts, noscript users, etc)..

They publicly claim that they don't.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PZoesvNUPDQ

His body language indicates hes bullshitting to me, but who knows.

"Deserves" as in "my site is a great result according to Google". If it's not, Analytics affecting SERPs for the site is a moot point to begin with as its only going to provide confirmation to Google that its in the wrong place for the phrases they are ranking for.

You're right, everyone seems to think Google owes them something and everyone gets all bent out of shape when rankings change as if Google somewhere promised them indefinite traffic.

My fascination with this conversation is that most people seem to believe that using Analytics is going to have a negative effect and the common thinking of painfully stupid people like Venusblogger that state categorically that it does hurt rankings no matter what - which is obviously not true and no reasonable person could reach that conclusion.

You better believe it. I was hit hard by Google after using GA on several sites a few years ago. So I don't use GA anymore after that case. :2 cents:

Op says, "my ranks changed. I made some small changes, and added GA" and assumes GA. Everytime I hear one of these stories the argument is weak like this one.

some sites the traffic increased, but 2 sites in particular the traffic dropped to about 30% of what it was, both sites used to get about 1500+ uniques per day and were between 1 and 2 in serps for main keyword but that's down to about 500 now.

however the minor changes i made to those sites were completely different, so it seems a coincidence if it isn't GA. And looking at some peoples previous experiences, it looks like it could be that.

anyone who had a bad experience with anal;ytics, did you get the traffic back when you removed it, how long?

@ :33 in the video he answers "to the best of my knowledge it does not. I'm not going to categorically say we don't use it anywhere in google."

He then says that only the Webspam part of Google does not utilize GA data.

So the answer to the OP is YES Google uses GA data in it's SERPS.














.

it's my trademark.








Period.

The answer to your question is in the TOS :)

Not our experience, at all.

I've used Analytics for years and cannot blame Analytics for any decrease or increase in traffic.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh I use GWT and have Google Analytics on every single one of my blogs and the only thing I've noticed is most of the time my blogs GAIN traffic with every Panda update. There's only one blog that I don't use Analytics on and it uses Piwik...ironically that's the blog that has lost a huge amount of traffic. You even have the option to NOT share information for Google to use for each individual site your add to Analytics.

BUT every webmaster is free to believe what they want and if they don't want to use Google Analytics than that's cool...you just gotta do whatever works for you and keep doing it. I can't say it doesn't affect your Google traffic because no one knows but Google, but in my own experience it hasn't hurt my traffic from Google whatsoever.

Using Google maps when you list a property for sale also hurts property values.

:2 cents:

:1orglaugh

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

:2 cents:

Even on the off chance they DON'T use the data, why would you share stats with a third party? It's not like awstats is difficult to setup.

If you use the same GA a/c on more than one site then of course you're telling G that they all belong to the same person; that helps it find your link deals and discount them. e.g. A->B->C trades are obviously recip if A and C belong to the same person.

So I only use GA on my mainstream sites as they all use the same AdSense ID anyway so G already knows they all belong to me.

You seem like a complete ignorant, so no wonders you know nothing about SEO and Analytics at all.

Just sayin...

That's funny, because you seem like a complete fucking idiot.

Period.

Permanently on the blob - only explanation for the attitude :disgust

unless you do not use Google at all, that never made sense to me. If you use it and put them all on different GA accounts Google will still know unless you use a proxy to log in to each account and clear cookies before doing so. It's so ridiculously easy for Google to track IPs and cookies to spot login tends that I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't.