is analytics really good for you?

[mojoman]

if i owned a shopping centre and there was this big flashy shop that took up lots of space, and i sent lots of people to it all's good. however if i learned they walked out empty handed, and didn't buy anything, and weren't happy with the shop, would i want to keep sending people to that shop?

likewise can analytics actually work against you by helping google lower you in the indexes? or do they think that the webmaster is actually trying to improve his site so it helps the indexing?

thoughts?

[GTP Dave]

Urchin dives pretty deep... thats why Google owns it... I myself do not use it for a similar reason you speak of

[RobertFrans]

doubt they will use that info to decide your listings (should be some law against it).. however .. if you have 500 domains all strategically linked .. and use on all analytics under your same account .. I see trouble in the future .. so I rather don't use it´.

[daedal]

I only use analytics on about 8 domains these are domains I want decent statistics for. They are not related, have no links to each other, theres nothing that classes them as mine apart from google.

I cant really see how using it would affect any listings, because as soon as that got out people would stop using it, which would mean Google would lose out by having lack of statistics, which it needs to stay number one in the advertising stakes.

[RevengeBucks_Monica]

Imagine being Google and having access to those types of stats, all those demographics for all kinds of sites and so on.... *rubs her hands together*

[BadWolf]

Originally Posted by RevengeBucks_Monica

Imagine being Google and having access to those types of stats, all those demographics for all kinds of sites and so on.... *rubs her hands together*

Exactly. I'm just not that trusting that Google or anyone wouldn't abuse that knowledge.

[N/A]

Originally Posted by RobertFrans

(should be some law against it)

Really? It's their search engine you know. How can the law interfere with anything? It's like the government telling you how to arrange your link partners or categories.

[RobertFrans]

Originally Posted by N/A

Really? It's their search engine you know. How can the law interfere with anything? It's like the government telling you how to arrange your link partners or categories.

google is a search engine ..

analytics is a program that collects stats for me.... using my personal information to alter their search listing .. i'm pretty sure is not allowed.

Just as they keep a history of the type of searches I do .. they had to change that too, due to european laws... because it's personal information.

[BadWolf]

No one ever breaks the law or abuses personal info, eh?

Lol.

[RobertFrans]

Originally Posted by BadWolf

No one ever breaks the law or abuses personal info, eh?

Lol.

yes they do and then they get caught ... or you never find out .. doesn't really change the law. LOL?

Or because of those people do you should trust nobody ..

Guess I better get a wooden shed somewhere in the middle of nowhere then .. and wait paitiently till I die .. seems useless.

[Donkey]

Well.... you have to agree with "Sharing" vague general term "amongst Google services" which Google itself justifies with Adwords tracking.

I recently read an interview with Matt Cutts where he was asked about the sharing to improve search results and he said that it is not being done yet but he also said that certain departments of Google can decide to use it later or somethign like that... if I find a link, I post it here, but it is about 6 mo old article...

Myself I use Analytics for tracking my mainstream sites. On sites where I am buying traffic with Adwords, I have the Sharing enabled.

I track even a very big sites (millions of monthly hits on one domain) and I did not notice any change in trends after I started tracking with Analytics, however it is only few sites and Analytics track hudreds of thousands.