One of the more terrible myths to arise in the SEO industry is that Google will penalize you for using their own analytics tool.
When in fact, that’s not the case at all.
Google penalties are incurred by using techniques that are against their webmaster guidelines, like using automated programs to build links. Not by using their own software.
While the SEO techniques you use could cause you to get penalized—depending on how egregious the violation is—simply using a particular tool will never get you penalized.
Article Talks About Page Speed Penalties, Not Algorithm Penalties
In a recent Simple Analytics blog post, the author claims that using Google Analytics can cause you to get penalized from a speed performance perspective.
While this is true for most of Google’s tools, including Google Fonts, the context of the headline is irresponsible.
It says that Google penalizes you for using Google Analytics. While this is partially true from a speed perspective, it is not the case from an algorithmic perspective.
While most SEO professionals will (we hope) read through the entire article and see that this is the case, we wanted to explain it plainly to prevent confusion.
Google Does Not Penalize Sites for Using Google Analytics
The key takeaway here is that you’re not going to get penalized for simply using Google analytics.
This headline is one of those types of headlines that was written for its clickbait potential rather than its accuracy.
Yeah, we know—sometimes accuracy is not as sexy as creating a clickbait headline. But, we wanted to point out that this is how myths are spread throughout the industry.
While most SEO professionals will read through the entire story, not everybody will read beyond the headline.
Google’s Page Experience Update Also Will Not be “Huge”
The other takeaway from this discussion is that Google’s page experience update will likely not have a huge impact, and you shouldn’t expect it to. They said as much a while back.
We don’t think it’s beneficial to publish headlines that spread disinformation. Although we have done so ourselves in the spirit of April Fools and snarkiness, that’s a hard limit for us.
You can also read the threads over on Hacker News and Twitter. They are both lengthy threads so you may want to read through them when you get the chance.
