Most online marketers are pleased with the services of Google Analytics. The service is attractive because it is entirely free, and the interface is pretty easy to learn and use. However, seasoned online marketers prefer to use paid services for their tracking and reports or a mix of different analytical tools.
Industry veterans agree that Google Analytics falls short in some major aspects that could put your investments at risk.
Below are three areas where Google Analytics has been found lacking, and recommendations on how you can make your current situation better.
1. Unable to give feedback on search engine spiders’ behavior
While Google Analytics does a great job tracking human visitors, it is incapable of tracking spider behavior. Google Analytics operates with page tagging—a program that only records information from browsers executing JavaScript. However, major search engine spiders do not execute Java Script in your site’s source code.
Tracking human visitors is useful, but this only tells you about individual behaviours on your website pages.
On the other hand, tracking spider behaviour will let you know how your website is being searched and which keywords are crawled over the most.
To track both human and spider activity, it is recommended that you avail of a third party program that accommodates monitoring options for both.
2. Unable to support log file analysis
For the serious Internet marketer, analysing the frequency of visits and searches is not enough. Getting to know your customers and building a relationship with them requires a database.
Log files transcend page tagging technology. They employ hard-coded server logs that are capable of mining visitor information. You are in charge of which data you need and the log file mines and sorts them for you. The most common file requests include IP addresses and the referral string—useful to know which backlinks work the best.
3. Google owns your analytics
Checking your analytics reports requires you to log on to Google. This means that reports aren’t readily available for you to refer to. The main function of analytical reports is to help you spot trends—both positive and negative—so that you can make quick and informed decisions any time.
Google Analytics does not give you an option to archive your data. In effect, Google has all your data.
Moreover, whenever Google decides to change the access interface or their method of reporting, you won’t be left with any choice but to adjust and work with it.
On the other hand, seeking professional help through third-party analytics puts you in charge of all your website’s figures and reports. You can access them anytime, print them out and refer to them whenever you like.
What you need to do
Google Analytics isn’t a completely useless tool. However, it is not an all-in-one tool that your profits can completely depend on. It is wise to learn more about other tracking and analytical tools and determine which reports are integral for the success of your online campaigns and invest accordingly.