Microsoft SharePoint is a popular document management & intranet solution, used by thousands of companies. Many of these organizations use Google Analytics to track SharePoint usage.

Here’s why this isn’t a good idea:

Google Analytics Is A Marketing Platform

Google Analytics is great at what it does. Its reports are focused on marketing-specific features: AdWords / DoubleClick / Display Network integration, remarketing, attribution, and advertiser ROI.

Most SharePoint customers aren’t using AdWords to drive traffic to their Intranet.

Tracking Relies on JavaScript

JavaScript-based tracking can be blocked, and increasingly is.

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

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

Minimal Details

Google Analytics shows aggregated data in its reports. The smallest increment in most reports is one day, and large datasets use sampled data.

Google Analytics also has PII (Personally Identifiable Information) restrictions. You can’t store Usernames, IP Addresses, or anything that identifies a User.

A good SharePoint web analytics tool shows details. For example: a list of Usernames who accessed a specific document last Thursday between 8-10 AM, with the ability to drill into the results.

Data Protection Regulations

GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, CDPA, PIPA…the list of acronyms and regulations keep growing.

Google Analytics stores its data in a global cloud environment. This becomes a problem when concepts like Data Sovereignty and Data Protection are enforced.

One of the best ways to avoid these regulations is to keep your data behind your firewall.

Web Analytics for SharePoint: A Better Solution

If your business needs a web analytics solution for your SharePoint environment, Angelfish Software is the answer.

Angelfish is a self-hosted web analytics tool, and works with both SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online.

Angelfish keeps data behind your firewall, shows all User details, and has been a SharePoint solution since the first version.

Learn More: Angelfish Overview