
Ask HN: Will Google penalize my site if I don't use Google Analytics? - watchdogtimer
I&#x27;m starting a new niche site, and would like to preserve my visitors&#x27; privacy for those to whom that&#x27;s an important issue.  For that reason, I&#x27;d like to leave out as many third-party tracking links as possible.<p>According to one of the big SEO firms[1], the top three ranking factors that Google uses are:<p>1) direct website visits
2) time on site
3) pages per session<p>To measure these, it seems to me a site would either have to ping back to Google on every page hit, or else the user&#x27;s browser (i.e., Chrome) would have to do it for them.<p>Chrome stores it&#x27;s users browser history on Google&#x27;s servers[2], so they know this data for all logged-in users.  But it can&#x27;t track non-logged-in users, nor users of other web browsers.<p>If I leave off my GA code, Google won&#x27;t be able to measure these three metrics for many visitors.  Won&#x27;t that hurt my web site ranking?<p>[1] - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.semrush.com&#x2F;ranking-factors
[2] - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;chrome&#x2F;browser&#x2F;privacy&#x2F;index.html#browser-modes
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antpick
I do not use google analytics

