The #1 Website Analytics Tracker May Be Turned Off in macOS Big Sur
At Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference, sharp-eyed observers noticed that a demo of the Mac browser Safari disabled many website trackers, including Google Analytics. Here’s a screenshot shared by Matt Southern of Search Engine Journal:

Like most small businesses, you likely have Google Analytics installed on your website. You use it to track how many new users your site gets, how long they spend on the site, which pages they visit, etc. It’s an incredibly useful marketing tool. Without it, your web marketing would be mere guesswork.
3 Reasons it is Not Time to Panic
While this is big news, and may affect website tracking and SEO for years to come, it’s not yet time to change everything in your small business marketing approach. Here are three reasons not to panic:
- This preview demo hasn’t been released to the public, so the change might not be final.
- The release date for macOS Big Sur isn’t until the fall. Users probably won’t entirely adopt it for up to a year.
- The demo was shown on the desktop browser, which accounts for only 15% of US desktop browser market share. (And desktop browsing is only about half of all internet traffic).
What Small Businesses Should Do Now
To see how this change might affect your website analytics reporting, check out what percentage of your visitors use the Safari Desktop browser today. For one of my clients, less than 5% of their website traffic comes from Desktop Safari, although 40% comes from Mobile Safari.

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