I had been talking about Google Analytic applications (”GA” from this point onward) in many of my post and how GA applications software can be used as measurement tool for your blog success and data mining.

Today I want to tell why GA might not be the best tool of measurement for yours’ blog success because GA can be misleading and flawed.  It is not just me who had this view but also shared among the web site optimization consultant.

1. GA used javascript snippet to track your visitor.  If your visitor turn-off the javascript function then GA will not count that as a visitor.
2. Your javascript tracking code is put at the bottom.  Google advise your to put the tracking code at the bottom of your pages.  Why? When browser sees javascript file, it tries to load it up and locks up the display of your page.  In short it’s slow the downloading of your pages.  but what happen if there is a disconnection while downloading your pages? That visitor will not be tracked.
3. Google Analytics only records pageview requests with a status code of 200 other than this, the page views won’t be recorded even though someone did view those pages.
4. If there is other javascript on a page, a possibility exists that the code in that can conflict with Google Analytics - and an error in tracking can occur.
5. How the GA handles the length of time between visits.  My unique visitor using AWSTAT is much higher than GA. AWSTAT treat an interval of more than 30 minutes as one visit.  So if your visit many pages under 30 minutes, it still count as one visit.  Did anyone know how long GA consider a unique visit? It is most surely different than AWSTAT and perhaps you should also look at your bounce rate.
6. Your spyware may block GA cookies.  This issue is similar to issue mentioned in No. 4 above.  GA also doesn’t handle AJAX application very well so site that used so much AJAX will at the mercy of GA.
7. GA is duplicating the cities information in the Map Overlay reports for some users.  The result will be duplicating result but the same visitor.
8. Your browser may not be compatible with GA.  GA have some issue with Firefox recently.  A Google Groups thread confirms that some users are unable to login to GA, due to a “Redirect Loop.” The error message continues to say, “Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete…”

The Bottom Lines

In my opinion, based on this finding, GA best used as a trending tool but not as a fact finding tool.  Before releasing your data to your potential audience you should consider who your audience.

A great deal of people had suggested not to based solely on GA but used more than one tools to measure yours’ blog success.  Some of those tool already featured in my previous post.  I think the best strategy will be the one mentioned by Avinash in his post.

What your experience with Google Analytic? Do you think Google Analytic present the correct information about yours’ blog visitor? Perhap you like to share your opinion in a comments?

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