Google Analytics. Any concerns?

Who uses Google Analytics? I have a couple of questions:

1) Do they share any of your information with anyone?
2) Do they add any coding, such as alt tags and what not?
3) Is there any other drawbacks from using it?

 

As far as I know there are no drawbacks, and they don't share your info. I use it, and its great.

 

What percentage of people have their javascript disabled? (Hence becoming untrackable).

 

I've used it for a few months, it's an interesting tool but honestly I don't depend on it.

 

I had a pretty small site, and out of 1,500 hits, about 1 % had javascript disabled.

 

Google doesn't share your info with anybody. The tool is free and worth $500/month which is what it should cost.
I use it and it has helped me convert much better. No drawbacks as it is free. Just try it. if you don't like it just remove it.

 

Good point!

I have several clients with sites on hosts that do not offer stats (small local hosts). Gives me a way to have stats for free. I never considered that it would be affected when javascript is turned off though.

It can slow down the site at times though. I've watched it get stuck on the script and hang a few seconds

 

Who uses Google Analytics?

Its very good and if you have the time to really use it you can build up a very good idea plus structure to were your site needs improving or building on

Your info is safe and no I would not share info about sites but thats just me

 

Google Analytics is one of the very usefull and powerfull tool. It can help you in lot of the way.

Google is never sharing any info with anyone.

 

Google Analytics is great, but..

We notice discrepancies in the 1000's between what Analytics/Urchin will report, and what other stat programs will produce.

This is actualy visitors, not bots, slurps etc..

My advice is to use multiple tracking programs (AW, Webalyzer, WebTrends, GA, etc)..

Good Luck

 

you must realize that analytics is not real time it is sometimes a day behind...I use statcounter for immediate stats and analytics for archiving and data analysis...if has so many reporting tools and I can look back at what my site was doing at the beggining of the year....all this for free

 

Yow! Who has the time? I have to resist the urge of stats addiction when I only use one program. Too many sites too little time

 

To play Devil's Advocate for a moment although Google won't share the information with anyone don't think they are not using it themselves to "better" their results. If you have heard how Google uses things like LSI and how long a visitor stays on your site as part of their algorithms then this data becomes valuable to them as well.

 

Analytics updates every three hours. I've been using is for about 6 months. It's excellent, especially if you run Adwords. You can tie your adwords account to your stats to track conversions.

The only script is a small one you place at the bottom of your page. The charts are excellent. You can set goals and navigation funnels, filter on query string params...it's awesome and unbelievably - it's FREE.

 

I use it and I recommend it for everyone....

The only "drawback" is learning curve...the interface is not very intuitive, so it took a long time to me figure out how to get some info that I want...

 

Anybody who is using their brain. There is no reason why you shouldn't. If it costed $400/month I would still think it would be worth it.

 

I for one think that Analytics is a great tool.

I am not sure about the information sharing; I'm sure the EULA would have covered it (if I had of read it, heh).

I am fairly sure that the only thing added is the javascript code for tracking - which you insert yourself.

No drawbacks from what I can see. Obviously however Google will be storing all data in the terabyte centers; however the use of this data is questionable - it certainly wouldn't be as profitable to use as say, data from gmail accounts.

But I think it is a fantastic tool to get for free, and if you are an Adwords advertiser it gets even better being able to accurately track conversions in a quick and easy manner.

 

I like it, I wish I had more time and a dummy book on how to use some of the features which is heavily geared towards adwords.

 

just installed on one of my businest sites.. we'll see how it works...

 

What are some techniques you use to improve your site with analytics?