Not An SEO Expert

Well it sure didn’t take Google long to add Urchin into its growing family of webmaster tools. When the purchase of Urchin was announced in March of this year Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s vice president of product management said, “This technology will be a valuable addition to Google’s suite of advertising and publishing products.â€? Eight month later we now see the end result.

Google analytics states that it will tell you, “everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You’ll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors.â€? And to top it off the service is totally free. This is a service for which Urchin charged $200 a month.

Does this seem too good to be true? I must admit my first response was extreme reservations about allowing Google access to that much data about my website. I have nothing to hide but let’s face it; my job is to fool the search engines. Why give them access to so much traffic information?

But then I told my wife about the service Google was offering for free and expressed my logical distrust of the company trying to corner the market on the world’s information. She promptly let me know that the tin foil was in the second drawer down to the left of sink in the kitchen if I wanted to go ahead and make my hat.

I’m currently paying $99 a month for analytics that do not match what Google now offers for free. I am tempted, but I haven’t signed up yet.

Filed by Bryan at 6:04 am under Search engine news