Google Analytics

[ep2012]

I'm trying to figure out if what this person wrote is accurate as he has an article that I'm actually looking for, but I want to first make sure he/she knows his stuff.



From searchenginejournal.com (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-analytics-fails-for-seo-purposes/5722/)

The first trouble is that Google Analytics uses what is called “page tagging technology”. 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.
Thanks,
Michelle

[keyon]

Obviously Google leaves a lot of things left under the hood with Analytics....but it is what it is...which is a pretty decent tool for getting a general idea of what's happening with your traffic and traffic sources.

The author (Eric Lander) suggests using log file analyzers (in addition to Analytics), but I have to wonder if this extra level of data would really help most DIY web marketers (like me). I imagine most of us are probably not even taking full advantage of the data we already have in Analytics.

Besides, I'm not sure what I would even do with detailed information about the behavior of spiders. The information I care about is what pages are indexed, where those pages appear in the serps, how many visitors I have to those pages, where the visitors came from and what keywords they used, and what they did after they got there. I'm not sure what else I need.

[a53mp]

This is true.

With that said, ANY analytics or stats program that DOES NOT read your server logs will never be 100% accurate. Some data within the server logs may night be 100% accurate either, but you are going to get the best stats off of your server logs.

Google analytics (and other alternatives) will give you useful information.. which you should take advantage of.. but you should never rely on it 100%.. you should be looking at your server logs as well. Most hosting comes with awstats or something similar. If you like using Google Analytics, you might be interested in Urchin.. it is what analytics is based off of, (but not free).. it is owned by Google. One of the main differences is that Urchin uses javascript AND server logs. It is fairly pricey though, but if you need it, it is a great tool to utilize.

http://blog.vkistudios.com/index.cfm/2009/9/25/What-is-Google-Urchin-The-difference-between-Urchin-and-Google-Analytics

The majority of your users are going to be visiting your site with javascript enabled.. the only visits that won't will be from some "power users", spiders, some phones, etc.. that number will probably be fairly low, so it may not be that much of a difference in what you are seeing.. and like keyon said about what you do with spider activity is not much.. you can get all of that info from your server logs. So what the guy said in the article is accurate, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use Analytics or alternative tracking.. you should.. just don't rely on it completely. Also there are some features in Analytics that you can't get really with log reports, such as Google integration with their ads and other features.

Anyways, check out that link it has some good info in it

[Dinghus]

Not much more is needed. The only reason I can see for needing spider information is to know when to go look to see if your site has changed in a SERP. Also to see if all your pages are getting spidered.
I don't use all of Analytics' tools and reports either. Primarily where they came from and where they went. Keywords that were searched on. The only downside is all the "direct" visitors. That means they have it bookmarked or something. That gives me some information but not really useful information as far as I can tell.

[compusolver]

Although I would check my web log from time to time, to check for suspicious activity and block any rogue bots that are eating up too much bandwidth (certainly not Google's though!), I agree with most posters here that tracking bots is not particularly helpful with your SEO efforts.

And it won't tell you when to check for ranking changes either because you never know just how long Google is going to take to digest its info and add to its database.

You should check for ranking changes frequently. Most small businesses should check weekly. Larger businesses should check daily or even several times a day.

And as for anything being 100% accurate, forget it. Just the fact that many people clear their cookies frequently will artificially decrease your return visitors stats.

For great info on getting the most out of Analytics, I recommend "Performance Marketing With Google Analytics", published by Wiley (wiley.com).

[ep2012]

Well, looks like the person who gave me this article plagiarized it, so that's out. <sigh>

It's a good thing I pasted that here, otherwise I would never have known.

Thanks


Michelle

[a53mp]

Plagiarism or not it is still a fact with what was said.. it's not a work of fiction.. even if he copied what he said right off of Google's website or some crappy website noone reads, it would still be true.
Fact is fact.. whether it is rewritten or not.

[ep2012]

I never said it wasn't true, but it does matter to me if someone lies & says they wrote that article when they didn't. If it doesn't matter to you, well, that's you, but I care about quality of work & honesty.

Michelle

[PoisonJam]

I'm glad GA doesn't track all manner of bots - including the multitude of spambots - as I don't want this crap skewing my user stats.

If I could have bot activity separated completely then it'd be a nice feature to have. I rely on server logs and the webmaster tools from the search engines for this kind of info.

[wige]

Actually, its not entirely accurate.


Automated browsers (including all spiders like Googlebot, Yahoo! Slurp, MSNBot, etc.) never execute JavaScript in your source code.

Googlebot, Slurp and a few other major SE bots do parse Javascript. Although these bots don't parse scripts as fully as a browser, Google has acknowledged that they do execute Javascripts to find links, and look for suspicious code that might indicate spam or cloaking. So to say that the bots don't execute the code is not entirely accurate. Bots may or may not run the Analytics script, but such a decision is made by the bot's internal rules. Also, it should be noted that Analytics will attempt to only show human visitors. As such, requests that track back to a search engine spider are likely to be omitted from the final results.

[khurramali]

Google bought Urchin and what you see now was once one of the best and most expensive website analytics solution available in the market.

After taking over, Google offered this tool for free thereby inproving its own algorithm, while offering value added service