Omniture is one of the premiere paid web metric software services on the market today. Yet its detailed functionality has been cloaked to many who have never gotten their hands on the application. I have been fortunate enough to participate in several Omniture implementations and have been very pleased with its capabilities once implemented properly.
http://www.omniture.com/en/
But even with my positive experiences using the Omniture’s platform I believe one should not disable Google Analytics (GA).
First off, there is no reason to do so–neither application conflicts with the other. Don’t think of the GA versus Omniture issue as a software migration process; your firm is just installing and supporting one additional application. Eventually you will have to choose which to use when tracking campaigns, but if you are paying for Omniture the decision is fairly straight forward.
That said there are a number of other reasons to maintain GA along with Omniture:
2. Google Analytics is free. Usually you get what you pay for, with Google Analytics you get more than your money’s worth.
3. Access to historical data. Assuming Google Analytics is your legacy web metric software, there is no reason to lose your web traffic history.
4. Benchmarking Google Analytics against Omniture data. Web metrics software is like medicine, if you can afford a second opinion—get one. And no two systems will tell you the same information.
5. Google is past the growing pains stage. I’ve rarely experienced abnormal latency with GA.
6. Google Analytics is (mostly) plug and play. Google defines most of its variables on its own once the script is embedded in your page code. Updating new web pages is very simple. Only specialty reporting like Goal Setting requires additional work. Because of the level of robust and customized reporting, Omniture requires more hands-on attention.
7. Google Analytics is tightly integrated with other Google services. For instance if you use Google Webmaster Tools or Google Adwords, you’ll want to keep Google Analytics code updated on your site. Especially if you buy paid search ads but don’t use Omniture SearchCenter.
8. Future extensibility of Google Analytics. One never knows what the next functionality Google will roll out.
9. Data longevity. If someday you decide not to continue your Omniture service, you will still have Google Analytics data available for longitudinal benchmarking. No one wants to plow through log data to rebuild site traffic trends.
A best practice is to continue adding the GA tracking script to any new web pages launched, in addition to setting your Omniture code for that page. And if your GA goals need updating, don’t delay. The extra effort in supporting two tracking tools will be worth it in the long run.
