It's really tough to read this with any sense of sincerity when it uses Google fonts and "feeds the beast" that is Cloudflare.
Touche. You are absolutely right. I will remove these too, but haven't gotten round it to it yet.
Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
21–30 of 401 posts
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#22Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#23Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#24I tried PanelBear, but because I briefly hit the front page of HN I blew through their free tier in less than a day.
I wish there was something very basic that had a more generous free tier. At the moment my site literally apologises for using GA.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#25Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…
It's refreshing that the only analytics I get for my open source project is github traffic, not website traffic or download counts.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#26Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…
> Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart I am very much onboard with this idea. The notion that it is a requirement that businesses track individual customers’ actions in order to succeed is pervasiv…
> without watching exactly how every customer looks at shelves
This is absolutely not true. Do you have experience with managing brick and mortar stores? Ever been to a grocery store with a "discount"/rewards program? That's their tracking of individual behavior.
They also use credit card data for the same purpose, although CC data is less reliable than rewards cards.
Coupons accomplish the same thing. You put out a specific coupon code for each newspaper/circular/TV ad, and then you see how they convert.
Things like Google Analytics are just the web version of things that have been done for almost 100 years.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#27Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…
I don't have anything live that uses Google Analytics but I've used it once or twice in the past, and the primary thing they got right is that it's just so dang easy, and I'm almost guaranteed to have the data I want. I'd so much rather support an open source product that does the same, though.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#28After a recent story on HN about all the horrible tracking Disqus started to do after being acquired by an ad-tech company, I ditched it and Google Analytics on my semi-dormant personal website. The process of fixing it got me interested in working on my site again and I ended up upstreaming the patches into the Hugo theme I use[1], so now everyone with that theme can benefit easily. I ended up using GoatCounter[2] a…
Remove stats altogether, pay for your website stats, or roll your own. Just exchanging the free script isn‘t doing anything.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#29I'd like to add https://pirsch.io/ as an alternative. The main differentiation from Plausible and Fathom is, that it can be used from your backend, so that adblockers can't block the script and you still get GDPR compliant statistics for your websites.
How is it GDPR compliant if you're sending the IP address of the visitor to that service? Not saying that it can't be used, and not saying that they would use / store the IP in a non-hashed way, but at the very least I will still have to disclose (and possibly opt-in approve) the use of that third-party service to my own users.
It could still be GDPR compliant if you ask permission, but that's clearly not the intention -- the Pirsch homepage says "no cookie banner".
[1] https://usercentrics.com/knowledge-hub/google-consent-mode/#... (See "Can I use...").
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#30As the article states, you get to decide how much tracking your visitors are subjected to.