Google Analytics (GA) is a tool that provides invaluable
information to its clients, but GA comes with a few caveats that users should
be aware of. GA does not provide precise measurement, can be unhelpful if site
traffic is not substantial, must be configured specifically to a user’s liking,
might have a negative impact on site performance, and could even present privacy
concerns to users who want their web present to be entirely anonymous.
GA is not particularly accurate for sites with low traffic
volume; the results that it displays might not be statistically significant
since a small number of visits might be over or undercounted due to visitor’s
settings or the way that GA was configured for the website. GA needs to track a
statistically significant sample of visits and users in order for the data to
accurately reflect the true user behavior; otherwise, it will give the site administrator
a false sense of the user interaction. Also, GA provides the user a massive
amount of information. The volume of information is so great that it is
virtually impossible for any administrator to review every piece of data that
it collects. Users of GA should methodically identify their key performance
indicators and tune their dashboards to show only the data that provides value.
In the past GA has had minor negative performance
implications regarding page load time. To add Google Analytics to a site, a small
piece of javascript must be added to each page. In several online forums other
users of GA recommend placing the snippet of code at the bottom of the page.
Recently, Google has created a new snippet that can be loaded asynchronously
and as a result has no impact on page load performance.
Because of web crawlers as well as the imprecise nature of using cookies to track individual users, Google
Analytics should not be used for accounting or business decisions that require
exact measurements. Users should understand that moderately accurate data is
more beneficial than just taking a stab in the dark. In order to track
returning visitors, GA relies on cookies. This is generally an acceptable
method unless a user has deleted their cookies or recently run an antivirus
scan.
Google has amassed a huge amount of data and many people
have privacy concerns about their online presence. Additionally, site owners do
not own the data displayed on GA– Google owns it. Google tracks and uses IP
addresses to help identify return customers, but they do not provide this level
of granularity to site administrators. In their privacy policy, Google writes “Google Analytics does
not share actual IP address information with Google Analytics customers.”
Finally, users can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by installing an
Add-on which excludes the user from being included in Google’s tracking software.
Given all of the various concerns and mishaps that can
happen as a result of Google Analytics, users of GA should understand the value
it provides and learn how to leverage the data to their benefit. At the grand price
of $0, there is no better web analytic software for your money.
References
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