Anyone using Google Analytics for their site?  Do you find it useful?  Google says it is free.  What is the downside?  What are the alternatives?

Obviously I am a real newbie with this stuff.  Any help at all would be appreciated.

c h e e r s
fred

I use it for all my sites and it's terrific. Don't know of any downsides, really. Might as well try it and see what you think of it, since it's easy to install and like you said - free.

Google Analytics indeed is a great Tool. The only downside is that all your website's traffic data is located at Google and they might use it for their purposes. Not a big problem for smaller sites however might be an issue for larger commercial sites.

It's free, there's no catch. I also use Statcounter.com, which I think is better for smaller numbers of users. Until recently, Statcounter was much better with real time results, but Analytics is getting a major upgrade that does this well.

Quote from: Fred on December 07, 2011, 22:27Anyone using Google Analytics for their site?  Do you find it useful?  Google says it is free.  What is the downside?  What are the alternatives?

Yes - Very - It is - None - None.

Thanks for the quick responses everyone.  I'll be signing up I think.


c h e e r s
fred

I use it in my sites, including Zazzle. The later produces very odd results - such as no views on days I sell 1-3 products - so I am not sure how reliable it is.