Google Analytics and SEO
If you are involved in search engine optimisation, the chances are that you are aware of an application called google analytics, if you have no idea what it is however, read on.
Google Analytics is a free service that is offered by Google that gives detailed and comprehensive statistics on the visitors to a given website. It is able to track visitors from all the different types of referrers such as search engines and links from other sites. Users are able to track where in the world the people who visit the site are from, what phrase they used to find the site etc. Google Analytics is also able to give users a fast insight into pages of the site that are not performing, allowing them to rectify the situation at an earlier stage rather than letting the issue become worse.
Google analytics is inserted into a website by using javascript code that is supplied by Google. This relatively simple process involves the placing of the information just before the last body tag on each page that you wish information to be gathered from. By using a separate line of code, it is also possible to see how many times a PDF file has been downloaded from a site. This can be useful for checking on the relevancy of information that is being provided to the public from a site.
While Google Analytics can be said to be highly accurate most of the time, there are some issues that highlight gaps in its abilities. Some programs, such as Firefox’s NoScript addon can block the tracking code. This can lead to inaccurate results, where more people may have visited a site than is being displayed. Users deleting or blocking cookies on their systems can also have a deleterious effect.
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