Question regarding Google Analytics

Spuffed · Oct 1, 2014

So i've come to the conclusion that there's always something "boggling" my mind almost everyday about IM, I'm always willing to learn and research, until that question is solved it will always be bugging me.

So my question (actually 2).

1) Is it wise to ALWAYS use GA with websites? If not, when should and shouldn't you use GA on a site?
2) Just say I have 2 websites and want to track my daily visitors using GA, should I be using proxy's when I login to check? Or can I just use my normal IP whenever I log in?

These are probably some stupid questions, please mind my wording... I seriously suck at finding the right words when trying to sound smart haha.

wickid · Oct 1, 2014

If you are not doing anything black hat I think it is a good idea to use GA on a site. I think it adds a bit of trust to your site in Google's eyes when you add your site to GA and Google Webmaster tools. If you are doing black hat related activity like running blog networks or doing a bunch of spammy back links to a site I would stay away from those tools.

In regards to accessing multiple sites it kind of comes back to the type of activity you are conducting. If you are strictly white hat when it comes to ranking your sites, you could add both sites to the same account profile and have no fear about checking out the stats. If you are doing black hat tactics, you would want two separate accounts and proxies would be helpful to keep you a bit under the radar and not getting your accounts linked.

Spuffed · Oct 1, 2014

wickid said:
If you are not doing anything black hat I think it is a good idea to use GA on a site. I think it adds a bit of trust to your site in Google's eyes when you add your site to GA and Google Webmaster tools. If you are doing black hat related activity like running blog networks or doing a bunch of spammy back links to a site I would stay away from those tools.

In regards to accessing multiple sites it kind of comes back to the type of activity you are conducting. If you are strictly white hat when it comes to ranking your sites, you could add both sites to the same account profile and have no fear about checking out the stats. If you are doing black hat tactics, you would want two separate accounts and proxies would be helpful to keep you a bit under the radar and not getting your accounts linked.

Ah perfect! Thank you very much, you put it in terms I can understand too!

So just say I was using Black Hat, I'd stay away from GA... but if I were wanting to check my visitors, how would I go about that? Is there a WP plugin available or some sort of website/tool that I can use?

Aty · Oct 1, 2014

Is it wise to ALWAYS use GA with websites?

no

If not, when should and shouldn't you use GA on a site?

Use it only when you have to.

Just say I have 2 websites and want to track my daily visitors using GA, should I be using proxy's when I login to check?

no

Or can I just use my normal IP whenever I log in?

yes

Bottom line is I don't like GA. Statcounter for example provides me more useful info than GA.

I try to avoid Google products (except their search engine) due to privacy issues.

snoopdogg1 · Oct 1, 2014

I use Piwik for real tracking.. I find GA not near as good but still use it.

Spuffed · Oct 1, 2014

snoopdogg1 said:
I use Piwik for real tracking.. I find GA not near as good but still use it.

I installed Statcounter on my websites, is this a good tool?

Pablo Picasso · Oct 2, 2014

I'd recommend Piwik over GA. Piwik gives you reliable information faster than GA. Usually GA takes 2 or 3 days to give you any useful information and it also a violates your privacy, if you're getting links from any PBN or other paid links then you're in danger. GA will sniff you and take appropriate actions against the network.

Zwielicht · Oct 2, 2014

Spuffed said:
Ah perfect! Thank you very much, you put it in terms I can understand too!

So just say I was using Black Hat, I'd stay away from GA... but if I were wanting to check my visitors, how would I go about that? Is there a WP plugin available or some sort of website/tool that I can use?

I'm going to add a little to this. If you're doing any black hat activities, it's best to avoid Google products entirely, especially Google Docs. I've heard of quite a few people on this forum getting caught by Google for link building either because they were send a link building report in Google Docs or because they were using Google Docs themselves.

praetserge · Oct 2, 2014

Had to thank Aty for the answers... I totally agree with his asnwers and now I'm not the only one who likes giving one word answers

I try to avoid using google products for the privacy issues and for most queries bing does just fine for me... but and there's a big but... many websites you visit, google still access your data as it serves the adsense ads

Kralj187 · Oct 2, 2014

No, no, no! Never use any of Google tools. The only real reason would be for disavowing links...

uiuxdesigner · Oct 2, 2014

My some clients also using clicky.com & kissmetrics.com, thats are GA alternative

Question regarding Google Analytics

Spuffed

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wickid

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Spuffed

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Aty

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snoopdogg1

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Spuffed

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Pablo Picasso

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Zwielicht

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praetserge

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