If you are serious about search engine optimization, Google Analytics is NOT for you. I know it’s tough to look past the (non-existent) price tag, ease of use and conversion tools — but trust me when I say that Google Analytics is a flawed program for your needs. #1 - Limitations of Technology The first trouble is that Google Analytics uses what is called “page tagging technologyâ€. Without getting too deep on this, it is important that we understand this one fact. That is, the program is only capable of recording information on browsers that execute JavaScript. Automated browsers (including all spiders like Googlebot, Yahoo! Slurp, MSNBot, etc.) never execute JavaScript in your source code. So, while Google Analytics may do a great job of tracking your human visitors, they’re unable to give you the goods on spider behavior. In order to make the most of your SEO efforts you need to know when a spider is coming in, what pages they’re requesting, and how often they’ll come back. Using this information is how you can launch and optimize new pages, set up the best internal links and prioritize your source code changes. While it sounds strange, I would go so far as to say that tracking spiders is just as important as tracking your visitors. #2 — No Support for Log Files I’ve met many novice SEOs who rely solely on Google Analytics. While it makes me wonder how much they are actually doing for their clients, I urge them to begin using log file analyzers. Log file analysis opposes page tagging when it comes to the technologies behind web analytics. Tools that rely on log files are using hard coded server logs to mine all information. Every request for a file on your site is recorded, along with an IP address, user agent, and in most cases — the referral string. While it can be a bit more work to use these applications — the data you get back makes it a necessary evil. The best part about log analysis is in the filters you can build. I know the Google Analytics tries to address this to some degree but it’s lacking at best in the control that you have. Sadly, Google Analytics will not allow you to upload log files (or, retrieve them via FTP/HTTP) as other applications do. If they could build this feature in, it would be a win-win situation. You could use GA to track all of your data — and so could Google! #3 — You’re at Google’s Mercy! When you need to check reports, you access them online via the Google Analytics interface. The reports cannot easily be taken with you, and you have no way of archiving your data efficiently. Worse still, is that Google retains control over your data at all times. If they change the interface or style of reporting, you are stuck with having to deal with what they give you. If we’re talking about YOUR web site, YOUR visitors and YOUR analytics… Why should Google have all the power? Before thinking that the product is complete too, leave the analysis to experts in web analytics. According to Matt Durgin’s blog, Forrester Research was less than thrilled by GA… Google Analytics was reviewed, but ranked far below the commercial solutions — further back than Urchin (whom Google acquired and re-branded as Google Analytics) ever ranked behind its competitors. This could be evidence that Google will not devote the resources to keep up with the commercial solutions on the market. If this trend continues, look for a larger discrepancy between the “free†Google Analytics, and the commercial, professional tools on the market. Recommendations In the end, Google Analytics is not a useless tool. It is however a tool that does not address the needs of serious search marketers. If you’re looking to make the most of your time spent on analytics, do yourself the favor of using multiple tools. Generally speaking, Google Webmaster Tools should provide accurate data for your site and how Google related to it. So should Yahoo’s Site Explorer. At the end of the day though, you’ll need a solid log file analyzer to learn more. Here are three recommendations I can stand behind: source: www.superearn.net
Google analytics doesnt track all of my traffic. I check my AWstats and it shows that I get more SEO traffic then analytics does.
GA however can be helpful in terms of SEO due to the fact that it tells Google when the human traffic to a website increases. It gives an instant effect: Google puts your website higher in search results. Several experiments have been carried out and they have proven that it's true.
I completly disagree...GA is one of the best tools out there. I would go to GA for most clients, even before moving up to somthing like Omniture.
Google Analytics does not display accurate results from my experience. If your browser has scripts turned off then you're not being tracked.
Don't ask the "orginal" poster about it - he won't know - he just stole it from one of the most popular seo blogs and tried to pass it off as his own - parasitic twat that he is. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-analytics-fails-for-seo-purposes/5722/
Google analytics tracks stats with the help of javascript there are chances ppl not allowing javascript and such stats arent going to be tracked
You are so off base on your review of Google Analytics I don't even know where to start, but here are a few points: 10 different analytics packages will give 10 different sets of stats. It's unrealistic to have perfect tracking, the focus is on identifying trends over time. You can only track so many things with pure log analysis which is why the more sophisticated packages do both log analysis and file tagging. There is now an API to access Google Analytics data to do what you please with. Before that there were PDF and XML exports that you can setup in an automated fashion. Anyway, I just think you don't really know just how powerful Google Analytics and other tagging packages like Omniture are for getting actionable data. Checkout the blogs of Avinash Kaushik and Justin Cutroni to learn a thing or two...