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Trusting analytics

by justray
6 replies
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I have two analytics tables I look at: one is Google Analytics (24 hour delay), and Wordpress site analytics, which measures traffic coming to my site, almost instantaneously. Google shows a lower number, while WP shows a much higher number of visitors to my site--sometimes 3 times the amount. What gives?
#analytics #trusting
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi justray,

    Google Analytics shows visits by users with a browser that supports Javascript. That means visits from bots are not counted, nor are visits from any users that have disabled javascript in their browser.

    Some site analytic scripts will measure traffic using serverside scripts and they often include all visits, including visits by bots. That is the most likely reason you are seeing a difference in stats from those two programs.
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  • Profile picture of the author thesweetspot
    I like Google and Getclicky analytics.
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  • Profile picture of the author malia
    You're not going to get 100% accurate analytics. You can use server side analytics, but that will miss certain information that can be obtained via a service like Google or Get Clicky. The purpose is not to give you every single exact thing going on, but to give you information that is accurate enough to make business decisions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Meharis
    Originally Posted by justray View Post

    I have two analytics tables I look at: one is Google Analytics (24 hour delay), and Wordpress site analytics, which measures traffic coming to my site, almost instantaneously. Google shows a lower number, while WP shows a much higher number of visitors to my site--sometimes 3 times the amount. What gives?

    justray,

    Google Analytics is very powerful but, does not provide sufficient info to give you a clear view of how visitors interacts with your site:

    Google Analytics does not tell you which exact buttons and links a person is clicking on a given page.
    Google Analytics does not tell you which portions of your webpage are the most read.
    Google Analytics does not tell you if people are scrolling all the way down and reading all of your content.

    synthesising, Google Analytics by itself isn't providing you with enough info to improve your site.

    You've to use other tools to get the whole picture.

    Meharis
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      Google Analytics is very powerful but, does not provide sufficient info to give you a clear view of how visitors interacts with your site:
      Hi Meharis,

      That's not exactly accurate.

      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      Google Analytics does not tell you which exact buttons and links a person is clicking on a given page.
      Google has event tracking that will tell you which exact buttons and links are being clicked. https://support.google.com/analytics.../1033068?hl=en

      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      Google Analytics does not tell you which portions of your webpage are the most read.
      Google Analytics includes In-Page Analytics to help you see which part of your content is being viewed and where people are clicking on your pages. https://support.google.com/analytics.../2558811?hl=en

      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      Google Analytics does not tell you if people are scrolling all the way down and reading all of your content.
      There is a Scroll Depth plugin available for Google Analytics users to see how far people are scrolling down on your web pages.
      Scroll Depth - A Google Analytics plugin for measuring page scrolling

      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      Google Analytics by itself isn't providing you with enough info to improve your site.
      Google Analytics in my opinion, does indeed give you more than enough info to improve your website in many, many ways. Way more than any other free analytics package and even more than most paid solutions.

      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      You've to use other tools to get the whole picture.
      Yes, I agree that you have got to use other tools to get more in depth info, particularly on individual visits. Due to privacy concerns, Google analytics aggregates their data to obfuscate the path of individual users. Seems that many people would aggressively block Google Analytics if not for their efforts actively protect the privacy of visitors.

      So if you want to see more than aggregate data, like the actions of individual users, then you do indeed need to use another analytics program to see that level of data. There are free options available like Piwik (self hosted), or Statscounter (cloud based).
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      • Profile picture of the author Meharis
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        Hi Meharis,

        That's not exactly accurate.



        Google has event tracking that will tell you which exact buttons and links are being clicked. https://support.google.com/analytics.../1033068?hl=en



        Google Analytics includes In-Page Analytics to help you see which part of your content is being viewed and where people are clicking on your pages. https://support.google.com/analytics.../2558811?hl=en



        There is a Scroll Depth plugin available for Google Analytics users to see how far people are scrolling down on your web pages.
        Scroll Depth - A Google Analytics plugin for measuring page scrolling



        Google Analytics in my opinion, does indeed give you more than enough info to improve your website in many, many ways. Way more than any other free analytics package and even more than most paid solutions.


        Yes, I agree that you have got to use other tools to get more in depth info, particularly on individual visits. Due to privacy concerns, Google analytics aggregates their data to obfuscate the path of individual users. Seems that many people would aggressively block Google Analytics if not for their efforts actively protect the privacy of visitors.

        So if you want to see more than aggregate data, like the actions of individual users, then you do indeed need to use another analytics program to see that level of data. There are free options available like Piwik (self hosted), or Statscounter (cloud based).

        dburk,

        An other thing I've learned today. Thank You!!

        Meharis
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