Google Analytics on Multiple Websites

[Frank Benjamin]

I was planning on developing a private network for linking and such, but after working on the first couple of site I came to realize that I was actually developing new quality sites with original, quality content. With that in mind, I decided that I will develop these just like my main site.

I still plan to link the sites where appropriate. My question is whether I should use the same GA account that I use for my main site?

I know Matt Cutts said that Google doesn't mind sites on the same IP interlinking as long as it is done in a natural way and is beneficial for the visitor. While I might have a few sites on the same IP, I wasn't planning on interlinking them. What do you think about sites on different IPs with the same GA account?

[Frank Benjamin]

I wanted to clarify in using the same GA account. Each site would be separate projects under the same GA account.

[casinomegamall]

Yes you can use your GA account for multiple sites without any effect on your website.

[Frank Benjamin]

any particular reason why you say this? experience, can you cite a source?

Or is this just your opinion?

[bboyspyder]

I always prefer to give less information to Google.
Analytics has pretty good alternatives that are open source and on server. Piwik or Statcount are just few to name.

If you plan to do anything Black Hat to any of the sites don't use Google services just to be on the safer site. I've read on some blackhat forums that removing Analytics and Webmaster + few high quality backlinks helped them get reindexed again after a penalty. Also having many sites under the same google account means if one of them gets marked for something all other sites are taken with a precaution from Google.

[Frank Benjamin]

I always prefer to give less information to Google.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Besides GA, I also use Statcounter. But I do like the information that I can get from GA - especially the conversion rates on my opt-ins.

However, I do have multiple alias gmail accounts set up with no connection to my GA that I could set up and use GA with. While this might be a pain to login to multiple gmail accounts to check anayltics on several site, it might be my best solution.

If you plan to do anything Black Hat to any of the sites don't use Google services just to be on the safer site.

Google and I don't always see eye to eye on what is and isn't Black Hat, lol. I am planning on making these sites unique with original content, but I also plan on interlinking some of them as well as doing some other backlinking.

Maybe using my alias email accounts will be the best move. I will also check out the websites that you mentioned as well.

Thanks for the reply!

[bboyspyder]

You can take a look at this link

blackhatworld [dot] com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/419816-guide-google-webmaster-tools-notice-detected-unnatural-links.html

6 Pages of case studies about google tools and effects of removing or having them. Pretty good read.

[Frank Benjamin]

Very interesting read. Now that you introduced me to Piwick, I think I will test this. Piwick looks very powerful and exactly what GA gives me.

I will probably work on it this week.

Thanks for the replies!

[Jyotijain]

Yes you can use your GA account for multiple sites without any effect on your website.

I agree, as i am using 1 GA account for my all company project, i have 10 projects under 1 accounts, and there is no effect.

[bboyspyder]

I agree, as i am using 1 GA account for my all company project, i have 10 projects under 1 accounts, and there is no effect.

That is because none of your site has ever received a penalty for some "black hat" stuff. Receive such a warning and not only the targeted site but all other site on the account are going to drop in SERPs.

[Frank Benjamin]

I agree, as i am using 1 GA account for my all company project, i have 10 projects under 1 accounts, and there is no effect.

Are you interlinking? Are all of your projects in the gambling niche? I understand that it can be done safely, but that wasn't my question. I was asking about interlinking them and doing other SEO.

After doing some reading about this, I have downloaded Piwik and will be slowly moving to using it for all my sites.

I look at it this way. Why give my opposition anymore information than necessary? Google sure doesn't give me 100% of the information. While I don't do much blackhat work, I never know when Google will change their view and algorithm on some of my strategies. I am trying to "beat" Google and rank #1 for competitive keywords. Why give them the data that could allow them to know that?

Also, my traffic and visitors should be my business and my data. Google shouldn't own my data. Using Piwik or another self-hosted allows me to retain full ownership of my traffic data.

Thanks for the reply Jyotijain, but without details it doesn't really help me much.

[Alain]

Frank,
From my experience the less info you submit to Google the better. A year ago I bought a site which was not linked to my network in a anyway and still carried the name of the previous owner WHOIS wise. The only thing I did was add my GA code to it. It got kicked hard like 7 other of my network's sites within a months time. I personally think that the alternatives to GA are good practice if you have a few sites in the same niche and plan to interlink them.
Once G marks one or more of your sites as part of a network, you're flagged, and its hard to shake that flag off. So I recommend to use piwik, statcounter, getclicky or any other. Keep one site on GA and thats it.

Good luck

[Frank Benjamin]

Alain,

What you are suggesting is exactly what I have done.

Any and all accounts other than my main blog/money site now has both Piwick and Statcounter on them. I like StatCounter as an instant/quick look at traffic and Piwik as more as an analysis platform.

I am going to keep GA and WMT on my main site. Mainly because I have so much data there and don't feel like starting over. Beside, I only had one other site in this niche with a GA account, and it wasn't really a network kind of thing at the time.

Thanks for the advice, looks like we are thinking a like.

[Alain]

Glad to contribute,
Good luck.

[bboyspyder]

It is important to note that only GA provides more info to Google than they already now.

It is a good idea to have WMT but on different google accounts for different sites.
Using WMT can help you for example when you get a warning message or get flagged because you will know it. Not using WMT leaves you in the dark struggling to know the reason for your site dropping fast and hard.

[richardcruise07]

Yes, you can use the Google Analytics for multiple website. There is already a facility through which you can manage the multiple website account in your single Google analytics account.

[Terry Kyle]

Especially at the moment, using GA is very risky.

Looking at piwik as an alternative (I normally use statcounter), can it track conversions?

Can't see any reference to it on their demo.

[Frank Benjamin]

Especially at the moment, using GA is very risky.

Looking at piwik as an alternative (I normally use statcounter), can it track conversions?

Can't see any reference to it on their demo.

Yes, you can track conversions, though I haven't messed with it myself yet.

[Terry Kyle]

Thanks Frank - digging around in there, it looks like they use the term 'Goals' for that function.