We use Google Analytics for a couple of our clients to monitor trends in their website traffic. I obviously like the fact that it is free and think it provides a pretty comprehensive analysis. The hard part is working with the client to understand what types of outreach they’ve been doing – events, press releases, website updates, media stories that have led to changes in traffic or if it is just normal fluctuations related to the day of the week/month of the year. Until we get a full year of information under our belts, it will be difficult to identify the cyclical nature of website traffic. There has to be a way to record the offline activities and correlate them to the online activities to get the most out of the information, otherwise it might just be guesswork.
I agree. G.A. is great at a few things, but a few other needed tasks seem elusive. I’m sure there is some customization possibilities, but I’m no programmer. 🙂
How are they getting around the issue regarding persistent cookies? I had been told that agencies couldn’t use GA because this could lead to tracking of personally identifiable information. I think it is a great tool.
Posted a comment on this earlier, but doesn’t seem to have gotten through. I was curious about how they are addressing the issue of persistent cookies with google analytics. I had been told agencies couldn’t use GA because of that issue, and the potential personally identifiable information that could be collected using GA. I think it’s a great application, so support the federal government being able to track their efforts using this or something else like it.
It’s a good tool. Cookies can be set to “session only.” Another big concern/issue to note is, who owns that data? Since the information is stored on Googles servers, technicaly Google owns it. And, if you ever move to another analytics package you lose that data. A nice resource is The Web Analytics Association.
We use Google Analytics for a couple of our clients to monitor trends in their website traffic. I obviously like the fact that it is free and think it provides a pretty comprehensive analysis. The hard part is working with the client to understand what types of outreach they’ve been doing – events, press releases, website updates, media stories that have led to changes in traffic or if it is just normal fluctuations related to the day of the week/month of the year. Until we get a full year of information under our belts, it will be difficult to identify the cyclical nature of website traffic. There has to be a way to record the offline activities and correlate them to the online activities to get the most out of the information, otherwise it might just be guesswork.
I agree. G.A. is great at a few things, but a few other needed tasks seem elusive. I’m sure there is some customization possibilities, but I’m no programmer. 🙂
How are they getting around the issue regarding persistent cookies? I had been told that agencies couldn’t use GA because this could lead to tracking of personally identifiable information. I think it is a great tool.
Posted a comment on this earlier, but doesn’t seem to have gotten through. I was curious about how they are addressing the issue of persistent cookies with google analytics. I had been told agencies couldn’t use GA because of that issue, and the potential personally identifiable information that could be collected using GA. I think it’s a great application, so support the federal government being able to track their efforts using this or something else like it.
The tool is able to be configured to remove the cookie thing. Don’t ask me how to do it, though. 🙂
It’s a good tool. Cookies can be set to “session only.” Another big concern/issue to note is, who owns that data? Since the information is stored on Googles servers, technicaly Google owns it. And, if you ever move to another analytics package you lose that data. A nice resource is The Web Analytics Association.