Google Analytics Alternative for Precise Data Gathering
Published Date: 15 Mar, 2021 | Updated Date: 09 Oct, 2023
Google Analytics Alternatives
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, along with an abundance of other information, such as how much time people spend on a given site, where a person came from, and even where the visitor is located.
While the collection of data is helpful for organizations, it’s often difficult to understand what you are supposed to do with that data.
Google Analytics provides the information but if you want a fully comprehensive analysis of how to apply the data to make informed business decisions, you will want to consider alternatives to google analytics for precise data gathering.
The Digital Navigator offers guidance on web analytics and provides a strong google analytics alternative. Schedule a free consultation today or join one of our masterclasses or webinars.
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Table of Contents
Why You Should Consider Finding Alternatives for Google Analytics
There are many reasons why a business would work with Google Analytics – the top one being that it’s embedded in the core of the internet.
However, between a host of recent privacy scandals and the fact that there is a loss of control over data reporting, many businesses are looking to find a google analytics alternative.
The Digital Navigator broke down the top reasons why our clients consider a google analytics alternative and how we can help.
1. You may not make accurately informed decisions. Google Analytics is a tool that does sampling rather than specific surveying of data.
When looking at the data you receive from Google Analytics, you might analyze incorrect information about what is your most popular web page or where your visitors are coming from.
As a result, you could make business decisions that actually hurt your business.
2. Your contact us pages may be inaccurately counted. The most important metric for any business is the amount of business that you collect from your contact us page.
This is a direct inbound lead! Specifically for The Digital Navigator, we grew our business from understanding that through our inbound leads, we were not at the place we wanted to be.
We noticed many people visiting the contact page but not submitting the form, so as a result, we made changes. Eventually, we found this sweet spot where we were getting at least a lead a week to 12-16 a month.
If we did not look at the specific web analytics around our contact us page, everything else we would have done for the SEO service would have been pointless, because it wouldn’t have resulted in leads with the right information.
From utilizing our private analytics, we can see what percentage of visitors are actually submitting their information so we can follow up with them and eventually have a sale.
3. With Google Analytics, all that data are approximations. With Google analytics, it’s hard to be sure that the data are accurate. There’s a lot of people today that block Google Analytics and block the ability for Google to pull their information.
In fact, some browsers will block it by default. Therefore, you are only getting a small sample size of the data that you can get with private analytics.
4. No customer service with Google Analytics. One of the most common notes on a google analytics review revolves around the fact that there is no person to call when you need to contact customer service.
With The Digital Navigator, or other private analytics companies, you always have a point of contact when you have questions to answer and issues to resolve.
5. Privacy is a concern. When you use a free service like Google Analytics, that data then becomes owned by a third party.
These large companies will then track the individual user and follow the rest of their motions on the internet including what other sites they view, ads they click on, videos they watch, etc.
By gathering all of this data, Google is able to create a profile of all the user interactions from their tracking and use the information for advertising, reselling, or whatever they can do to continue to maintain profits.
Therefore, the client’s data is not private and you have no ownership of the data – Google does.
Private Analytics vs Google Analytics : Which One Gathers Data Accurately
With both google analytics and privacy analytics, there are pros and cons. It’s up to you to determine what is most important for your organization. The Digital Navigator team is here to provide that support and information for you.
Google Analytics |
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Pros |
Cons | |||
| Easy to adopt – it’s one of the most accessible web based tools because it is integrated seamlessly into the internet. | Staying compliant – you might not be taking a look at the compliance legislation, and the technology required for that, so you might be exposing yourself to fines. Google Analytics cannot stay on top of all of the changes with laws and legislation around privacy. | |||
| Free model – the base model is free for users. It costs to scale but at first, it’s free. | Sampling of Data – this makes it even harder to make decisions that are applicable to your organization because it’s not always accurate. Cross analysis becomes extremely difficult since you cannot differentiate between the data sets available. | |||
| It’s popular – being a popular model in the field, it’s an easy choice for companies who don’t have the time to do research on a web analytics tool. | Finding answers is a challenge – combining data is already hard enough and it becomes harder when you cannot tell what is applicable to your business problem. Google analytics does not provide a clear break down of information, just a repository of data. | |||
Private Analytics |
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Pros |
Cons | |||
| Most accurate data possible – you can continue gathering all that information, have very precise data, and then take the necessary corrective actions. | You have to find a trusted analytics platform – it takes effort to search for and identify an organization that is right for you. The Digital Navigator can work with your specific needs to make sure that you are getting the right fit. | |||
| Maintain compliance – The Digital Navigator stays on top of changing privacy laws and legislation so that you don’t have to. With private analytics, you are more likely to stay compliant and make sure that you will not be hit with fines or a lawsuit. We have a partnership with the FTC guardian to make sure that this stays accurate. | Could be costly – Google analytics comes with its own price tag but so do private analytics. Each company has its own pay structure to consider. | |||
| Streamline data analysis – You can take advantage of tools like the heat map to differentiate your data and look into specific subsets of information. For example, you can look at your clients in Canada vs the US and breakdown data points from there to make informed business decisions. It’s easy to get granular on specific application analytics. | You have to be invested – the data is only as good as the effort you put in to understanding it. If you and your team do not care about analyzing the data, then having access to the most detailed web analysis won’t help you achieve your growth goals | |||
Get Started with Private Analytics
Google Analytics Review
While Google Analytics is an industry leader and provides a comprehensive overview of web analytics for a free price at the beginning of your service, there are mixed reviews from the actual users of the platform.
The overwhelming majority of users say that it’s “fine” to use but say that it can be expensive, it’s hard to learn by yourself, the customer service is ineffective, and it does not dive deeply into the analytics leaving room for questions about their demographics.
After a quick search on the internet, the average rating found for both ease of use and customer service was around 4.1 out of a ranking of 5.
The clients of The Digital Navigator base a lot of importance on usability and customer service experience which is why we provide top of the line service.
Not only can we provide easy to digest private analytics, but we also offer free consultations, masterclasses, webinars, and specific analytics guides. Some of this content is even free for non-clients!
Final Thoughts : Privacy Focused Analytics
Advancing your business development to increase customer acquisitions and make decisions that will propel your business forward is difficult when you don’t have the right data to analyze or you don’t understand how to read the data that you are given. A complete analysis tool that provides precise and efficient tracking is what your business needs the most.
Working with private analytics tools from The Digital Navigator as a Google Analytics alternative can help with both the collection and analysis of data.
The Digital Navigator are professional that works with businesses across all industries and verticals to provide private analytics specific to your customers. Start learning today and see how great your business shifts into a positive space.
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