Google Analytics is the most popular analytics solution, used by millions of websites. Even though it’s an effective solution for external websites, Google Analytics is NOT a good choice for Intranet websites.

Here’s why:

Google Analytics Isn’t Designed for Intranets

Google Analytics is an advertising tracking platform, targeted towards marketers and advertisers.

This wasn’t always the case: early versions of Google Analytics were more Intranet-friendly. But as the product has grown, Google Analytics has become more advertising-focused.

Most of the new features released in the last few years are not relevant for Intranet websites, like Remarketing, AdWords linking improvements, and DoubleClick integration.

Tracking Can Be Blocked

It’s easy to block tracking – there are many ways to do it, with browser extensions, browser dev console rules, or firewall policies.

When a User blocks the tracking script or beacon, the User doesn’t appear in your analytics reports.

This is a weakness for all analytics products that rely on JavaScript. JavaScript-based tracking can be blocked, and increasingly is.

You can see Users that block Google Analytics Tracking with Angelfish Software.

Data Protection Regulations

GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, CDPA, PIPA…with each passing year, there are more acronyms and regulations.

Google Analytics stores its data in a global cloud environment. This violates policies that require Data Sovereignty and Data Protection.

One of the best ways to avoid these regulations is to keep your data within your environment.

Site & Page Errors

Like most SaaS analytics products, Google Analytics collects data with JavaScript page tags. Site & Page errors are frequently overlooked because they aren’t tracked.

There are many reasons a page doesn’t load successfully, like broken links, bad redirects, and unauthorized content.

All this information is readily available in your web server access logs.

Web Analytics for Intranets: A Better Solution

If your business needs a web analytics solution for your Intranet, consider Angelfish Software.

Angelfish is a self-hosted web analytics tool that is designed for Intranet environments.

Angelfish avoids data protection laws by keeping your data behind your firewall, shows site & page errors, and doesn’t rely on JavaScript-based tracking.

Learn More: Angelfish Overview