Google Analytics

[geminisden]

Hello All,
Does anyone use Google Analytics on their website?
If yes, then plz let me know whether it really does benefits or not?
As for now,I have gathered the necessary details regarding the google analytics and even tried to make an account, but to no avail, as they are not accepting any new signups for the time being.

It wud be an added advantage if any one of you, who uses google analytics share their experience.

Thnx.
:)

[SEOforGoogle]

I have it running on 3 of my sites and yes, while it is limited, the information they share is insightful.

They give you an average of 5 lisitngs per category -
So in the Marketing area, they'll tell me the top 5 keyword searches used to reach my site - so you'll find some great information there.

Overall, I would still say if you have the money, use Webtrends, Net Tracker, or some other fee based reporting system, since that's the business they are in.

If you are on a budget, Google Analytics is a nice but limited freebie.

[geminisden]

Thnx SEOforgoogle, the reply is much appreciated. Can I plz know wat do u mean by 5 listings per category?
Actually, I have used Urchin for my website and while doin some R&D, I found that Google Analytics has overtaken Urchin and now Urchin is called Google Analytics. I found Urchin to be of quite a help.

Thnx for ur reply !!
:)

[incrediblehelp]

geminisden if you were lucky enough to get an account when they allowed sign ups your allowed to add 5 domains for Google Analytics to track.

[Millenium]

Hello,

Before using Google Analytics, I was using Awstats. Does anyone know about some differences in the information gathered between the two? Based on Awstats, I seem to be getting much more visitors than Anaylytics is reporting. Anyone know why that would be, and which would be the more accurate of the two?

[brian.mark]

I have it running on 3 of my sites and yes, while it is limited, the information they share is insightful.

They give you an average of 5 lisitngs per category -
So in the Marketing area, they'll tell me the top 5 keyword searches used to reach my site - so you'll find some great information there.

Overall, I would still say if you have the money, use Webtrends, Net Tracker, or some other fee based reporting system, since that's the business they are in.

If you are on a budget, Google Analytics is a nice but limited freebie.

Actually, you can pull out as many keywords as you want from Google Analytics. It's just hidden. I have a blog post discussing how to get all of the keywords used to arrive at your site. I think it's appropriately titled.

Hello,

Before using Google Analytics, I was using Awstats. Does anyone know about some differences in the information gathered between the two? Based on Awstats, I seem to be getting much more visitors than Anaylytics is reporting. Anyone know why that would be, and which would be the more accurate of the two?

Since one analyzes logfiles and one uses JavaScript, they each have limitations. Logfile analysis will show every spider, bot, and script that pulls a page from your site. JavaScript ignores those and focuses on human visitors, but those with JavaScript disabled get missed. However, someone clicking back on their browser gets credited as the "Back" being part of their navigation path, which logfiles miss.

The answer is that they're both accurate, they just count things differently.

Brian.

[Graf1771]

I was lucky enough to get a google analytics account when they were available. I find it very helpful although the sites I use it on are quite small.

I don't think that for a very large site with high volumes of traffic it would be particularly useful. I've yet to try combining it with Adwords, has anyone found it useful?

[brian.mark]

We're using it on toolpartsdirect.com and have found it incredibly useful. That's not a small site by any means. The AdWords integration is very, very useful. Being able to see the words that people really used, instead of which broad match term, is an amazing and cool feature for a free program.

Personally, I feel it gets more useful as the site grows.

Brian.

[JROBERTS]

I use it on dirtydisco.net and the keyword landings are quite valuable its also of interest to see where your traffic come from with either a geo map or reffering url etc , at the moment id give it the thumbs up

[frogmanandy]

Personally, I find analytics is totally screwed up ... for one of my sites they claim that 38% of my traffic comes from google ... this site is less than a month old and does not list in the top 100 for any keyword and awstats shows that all of my traffic comes from affiliates, recips or msn (a few from yahoo) ... i show 14 out of 6,000 visits coming from google ( and I think those were my searches for site:)