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Can I remove Google Analytics without affecting Google Search ranking?

Published on: 2023-5-28 Can I remove Google Analytics without affecting Google Search ranking?

There is no evidence to support such a thesis, and the community feedback we can easily assert that: No, removing Google Analytics from your website will not impact your Google ranking.

That means you can replace Google Analytics with an alternative, such as privacy-friendly Wide Angle Analytics, and enjoy fast and reliable web analytics without the penalty.

If choice of web analytics does not impact the ranking, then what does?

What impacts your Google ranking?

Google uses a complex algorithm with over 200 ranking factors to decide the order of search results. While not all factors are disclosed or understood, several well-known factors can influence the ranking of a webpage:

  • Relevance of Content: Content is the most important ranking factor. GoogleBot, the famous Google crawling engine, inspects each page to find out what your webpage is about. It's crucial to use keywords in a natural and sensible way.

  • Quality of Content: Google's algorithms prefer high-quality content. This refers to in-depth, well-written content that is beneficial to the reader.

  • Website Speed: Fast-loading pages are favoured by Google. This is because users prefer sites that load quickly. Optimizing images, minifying CSS, and leveraging browser caching are some ways to increase website speed. Because GoogleBot can actually render website with JavaScript, having lightweight web analytics script is essential. The Wide Angle Analytics script is tiny and yet functional. Thanks to the global Content Delivery Network (CDN) we leverage to distribute our script, the load times are incredibly fast.

  • Mobile-Friendliness: More people browse the internet on their phones than on desktops, so Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher.

  • Secure Website (HTTPS): Websites using HTTPS are favoured by Google because they provide a secure connection for visitors.

  • User Experience (UX): Google uses factors like mobile-friendliness, usability, and site speed to determine the user experience of your website. Do you still use trackers and 3rd party cookies? Then you have to bombard your visitors with consent banners, the dreaded Cookie Banners. These, depending on choice of implementation, range from mildly annoying to outright breaking user experience. By choosing Wide Angle Analytics, a cookieless by default web analytics with strict GDPR-compliance, you can abandon consent forms and delight your visitors, and Google crawler, with a frictionless experience.

  • Backlinks: Backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites signal to Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy.

  • Domain Authority: Sites with a higher domain authority generally rank higher in Google's search results.

  • Technical SEO: Good technical SEO includes URL structure, use of meta tags, site map availability, proper schema markup, and more.

  • Social Signals: While not a direct ranking factor, there's a correlation between social shares and visibility in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

  • Dwell Time & Bounce Rate: These metrics help Google understand if users are finding your content useful. In case you wonder which content is actually engaging and which drives your visitors away, be sure to check out our engagement statistics. Wide Angle Analytics allows you to track the time spent on each individual page, and also, on which websites does your audience leave your Internet property.

It is important to note that these factors may change over time. Google continuously updates its algorithms to provide the best results for its users. So, keeping up with these changes is critical for keeping or improving your site ranking.

Summary

Google is an opaque organization with numerous conflicting interests. On one had, users are prominently presented information about privacy and how Google, and its parent company Alphabet, care about it.

On the other hand, Google is first an AdTech company. It thrives on data collection to deliver targeted advertising capabilities to its customers.

Sadly, numerous news reports prove that this fine line is often crossed, and it is the Internet users whoe pay for with their data and privacy.

We should always be aware of any changes to the algorithm and keep up to date with the situation. We want to keep Google accountable. For now, deleting Google Analytics, a web analytics with questionable legality, will not affect your Google ranking.

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