View Larger Map

Part 2: Google Analytics – Doing Some Mythbusting

July 22nd, 2009

Comparing brand visit

photo credit: Search Engine People Blog

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Last week we took a quick look at some of the most basic tools that Google Analytics has to offer and how it can offer valuable feedback data for your business. However, since Google Analytics is a free service for anyone who wishes to use it, naturally there is bound to be some negative PR from some of the naysayers out there. What we’re doing this week is looking at busting a few of those myths to prove that there’s no reason not to take advantage of this extremely powerful business tool.

Myth: “I don’t have much control over my data”

This couldn’t be further from the truth. You can virtually control any aspect of the data you wish to see or even the people you want to see it. Not only can you customize your data view directly from the Google Analytics dashboard, as with most Google products the system also allows for collaborative viewing and editing. This allows you to invite multiple users to your Analytics account.

It doesn’t stop there either. You also have the option of sharing your data with Google to either improve the Analytics product or simply for benchmarking purposes. In this case, your data is shared anonymously with others for Google’s benchmarking feature. No matter what options you may choose, your data is always well protected, which leads us to our next myth…

Myth: “Since Google Analytics is a free service, it’s very limited and full of security holes”

Limited? Hardly. The only thing limited about Google Analytics is the time you’ll be able to spend exploring the plethora of great features. The software not only tracks basic visitor data such as number of visits, return visits, page views, user location, etc… it also contains much more advanced features like cross data segmenting, event tracking, customized goals, and that’s only scratching the surface. You can even tie the system directly to your Google AdWords campaigns. To read more about how to use some of the endless parade of features with Google Analytics, visit Google’s support page at http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/.

As far as security goes, Google takes its users’ privacy very seriously in everything they create and Google Analytics is no different. They have entire teams and divisions dedicated to security and infrastructure on their end.  They have taken great measures to prevent data loss, and even offer advanced security, firewalling and routing to keep your data secure, and if you’re still worried about your data’s security issues, that brings us to myth #3…

Myth: “I’m stuck using their interface to view my data”

Maybe you don’t want to be accessing your data directly from the web. No problem. Google Analytics has a built in Export feature that allows you to save your data in a variety of formats (such as PDF or XML) so that you may keep a copy on your local computer or portable device, or even for just printing out and reading later. There’s even a function that allows you to email scheduled reports to your colleagues or your own email address. If you’re still not satisfied, Google also has a software product that you can run locally. You can find it at http://www.google.com/urchin/index.html.

Holy Hit Counters, Batman! As you can see, Google is always taking it to the next level. The days of silly odometer style hit counters embedded at the bottom of your website are long gone. With Google’s free Analytic service, not only is the price right, but you now have access to all the collected data you could possibly want for your business. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of it?

I could go on and on, but now that you’ve seen the potential for the valuable visitor data offered by Google Analytics and what it can do for your website and your business, contact Point.Click Media to start implementing the right changes.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Posted in Product Reviews, Web Tools on July 22nd, 2009

One Response to “Part 2: Google Analytics – Doing Some Mythbusting”

  1. Point Click Media Productions – web design, web consulting, print …- SFWEBDESIGN.com, on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 am Said:

    [...] the original post: Point Click Media Productions – web design, web consulting, print … Tags: analytics, basic-tools, business, free-service, Google Analytics, look-at-some, quick-look, [...]

Have a Question? Leave a Reply!