Comments on: Do you find Google Analytics Helpful

By: MG

MG — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 02:23:08 +0000

I like it less and less everyday.

At first I was seduced by it’s pretty GUI but once I started trying to get it to do some of the standard analysis tasks I was appalled at how difficult it was.

A lot of the features simply don’t work, while others are so complicated to set up they are all but useless.

The help pages seem to be written by geeks who don’t know how to communicate to the ordinary business owner or man on the street.

The Site Overlay would be useful if it could ever work properly.

There are plenty of other easier packages to use.

By: SearchPro

SearchPro — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 23:55:07 +0000

Just installed google anayltics on my site, I am excited to see the results
Net Detective
I had trouble adding another user profile the forums report the same thing

hmmm?

By: jayvee f.

jayvee f. — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 04:37:00 +0000

GA is just fine and dandy but it doesnt compare to AW stats which givs much more detailed information.

GA slacks when you need to find out what the “other sites” that link to you are.

By: row1.info

row1.info — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 09:27:44 +0000

its a bit clunky and has to many features for me,
i prefer sitemeter, much nicer :)

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 09:08:36 +0000

One thing some people might be missing with Google Analytics is the ability to track AdSense clicks. This nice script will let Analytics track when someone clicks a Google ad (but unfortunately, it doesn't tell WHICH ad). Install this script for a while, and then look in Reverse Goal Path in Analytics, and you'll get the sort of information none of the server log analysis tools could ever tell you. More tips later, probably...

By: miscblogger

miscblogger — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:55:28 +0000

I love analytics. I’ve basically ditched my previous stats program (the one bundled with my web host’s cPanel, AWStats). I find it very helpful to track which page gets the most adsense clicks.

By: Rian

Rian — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:41:46 +0000

Good Lord, no.

GA sucks compared to third party apps which analyze the server logs directly:

AWStats
Analog
Webalyzer

And an offline program I rather enjoy because it allows you to filter you specific keywords (great for spam). OpenWebScope

Compared to any of the tools I listed, GA isn’t even a contender. Decent webhosts (like HostRocket, Dreamhost, etc.) have some or all of the tools I listed above pre-installed.

By: Mihai

Mihai — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 07:46:12 +0000

Google Analytics are extremely helpful.
This is the only way I can truly understand my visitors.

By: Robb D

Robb D — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 05:45:39 +0000

I do find Google Analytics helpful, although, I wish the stats were more up to date. I will say, however, that the goal tracking, is invaluable.

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 05:27:36 +0000

I have been using Google Analytics to great effect. It’s generally far better than free packages such as awstats as the reports you can get are much more in-depth and can show you things that you will certainly miss using other packages.

One thing I’ve realized reading the comments here is that people use statistics in wildly different ways. I think what might be helpful at this point is a series of “how-to” articles showing how to use Google Analytics to accomplish specific tasks, such as seeing what keywords led people to individual pages (awstats only shows you keywords leading people to your site overall).

I’ve actually used it to help optimize my AdSense ads, and had my first over $30 day this week. I didn’t figure on hitting that until March. Now, on to $50, then $100…

By: Russell

Russell — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 04:06:22 +0000

I use it almos daily now. It has re-energized my blogging. Now that use Performancing for Firefox I blog much more, and QA shows the results.

By: Abdul Rahman

Abdul Rahman — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 00:16:33 +0000

Well, I have used Google Analytics on both of my blog (http://www.xtreme-fund.com and http://www.spyware-blog.com) and it’s working without any problem. Their statistic were simple yet providing much statistic I wanted too, though they doesn’t track what is coming from other SE such as Yahoo! Not bad afterall. :)

By: Bill McRea

Bill McRea — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:42:10 +0000

Google Analytics has been very helpful in figuring our where my traffic is coming from and what keywords are driving people to my sites. My guitar website has been fine tuned based on the information people want.

This fine tuning has lead to increased Adsense income and more sales. I see what people want… if it’s information about Boss effect pedals… I put up more information on my site and my product sales and adsense income goes up up up!

Once you are on Googles good list they love you. They give you traffic, pay you advertsing money and show you how to fine tune your site to optimize your ROI.

By: Thomas Swift

Thomas Swift — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:34:37 +0000

I really like GA. I have Urchin installed from my webhost so I have access to both. I think GA’s user interface has been modified to suit business people that want to have access to the webstats. Once I saw ROI sprinkled in there, I figured that is what they are going for.

Features I find useful. Like others posted. I like all the metrics regarding broswer/platform/screen size/screen resolution, It’s quick and easy to get to.

It’s speedy and snappy for me. All in all it’s a great tool for free.

By: Elle

Elle — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:25:16 +0000

I would be interested in using it but currently pay for hitslink.com. This is excellent service and shows me the phrases people are searching on to find my site – not sure if Google Analytics does this – would anyone be able to tell me? Thanks Elle

By: Jon Heizer

Jon Heizer — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 23:08:27 +0000

I have been suing it since it came out. It has done the basics for me and I think It is pretty fast, but I was only checking 2 blogs. I didnt mind it being behind because I was checking it late at night and it usually had the most of that days stats.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:42:33 +0000

No, because in the time it takes to load I could have logged into my server and read the Awstats figures for 3 blogs in the time it takes 1 in Google Analytics. Sure, the figures are nice and pretty but I don’t want to spend half my daying waiting for a page to load to get pretty stats!

By: Carole Nickerson

Carole Nickerson — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 19:26:51 +0000

Too slow for me to try and dig through. Unless I see in clear black letters that it’s going to give me something really useful making it worth my time – I could care less. I’ve got enough data to muck through in the run of a day..

By: Michael Moncur

Michael Moncur — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 18:08:54 +0000

I don’t use GA at all, but I do use a self-hosted version of Urchin 5.0. Now that Google has purchased Urchin I’m a bit worried that they’ll drop support for the software version completely.

I do find Urchin very useful, and check it every morning. Definitely the best statistics package out there.

By: Roger Johansson

Roger Johansson — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 18:02:18 +0000

Not really.