Does Google Analytics suck?

markdsullivan · 11-10-2009, 12:37 PM

I've been using analytics for a couple years now and it usually shows the referring sites that sent me traffic. But for one of my newer sites, all it reports is direct traffic.

And lately, its been reporting less traffic than I am getting signups... so I don't know wtf is wrong with Google Analytics but something's seriously screwed up.

Has anyone encountered problems like this?

Thanks,

Mark

steve-wilkins · 11-10-2009, 12:43 PM

I have been using google analytics for 2 years now and the data it sends back is always way different to the data I collect from my web host control panel and various other places.

For example on Sunday google analytics reported 79 unique visitors to my blog that day where as all other resources reported que 236 unique visitors. Something seems off with GA for me.

Just my thoughts!

Steve.

SurviveUnemployment · 11-10-2009, 12:46 PM

For one thing it doesn't count people who have javascript disabled or ad-blocking software.

I only use it to check the bounce rate.

Jhf14 · 11-10-2009, 12:53 PM

I dont think any single one of those traffic reporting tools is 100% accurate... ive had troubles with analytics too.

davtom · 11-10-2009, 07:05 PM

I find google analytics so-so... An alternative that is up-and-coming is piwik from piwik.org. You host that yourself, so (a) it doesn't cost you anything extra; (b) Google aren't automatically getting their hands on your user's information; (c) the information is pretty much instant, whereas with Google it is delayed.

You can also see the source code, so if you're a coder, you can expand it if you need to.

euhlir · 11-10-2009, 07:07 PM

Every traffic report has different outputs. AWstats shows tons of traffic, while analytics may show nothing.

DogScout · 11-10-2009, 09:56 PM

I have a site that 3 other services claim gets 50k a month. Goggle says 500 a day. Dunno who is right, Google or the other three. if Goggle, the 500 people that come are pigs.

(I sent 1,000 one day using Tweeter to see. Bit.ly said 1.000 went to the site. Google said 500 did, who knows.)

DogScout · 11-10-2009, 10:01 PM

At the end of October, Google said my October bounce rate was 60% for the month on the 29th. on the 30th it said I had 500 visitors that day and my bounce rate was 27%. Statistically, that is impossible.

automated1 · 11-10-2009, 10:05 PM

Yes you're right I heard about google which what you said is impossible.

DogScout · 11-10-2009, 10:15 PM

Google isn't the only one. Sitepoint says I get 90,000 visitors a month and 6.38 page views each and my host says 50,000 a month and 11.57 page views a visitor.

Based on Downloads and 3 hosts over 5 years, I am guessing my host is closest to reality.

mark z · 11-11-2009, 07:53 AM

Same as for many other areas I found useful to have several sources for analytics too.
Generally speaking, none of those I use is perfect. Data "dance" way too often. But, until I found single one reliable tool for statistic purposes, I have to compare stats from all valuable tools in my arsenal.
And GA is one of them for sure.

Debbie Songster · 11-11-2009, 09:19 AM

I just recently joined on with Web Analytics in Real Time | Clicky
I rarely look at Google analytics anymore.

If you have Wordpress, the GetClicky plugin collects your data, shows you the results in real time and shows it on your WP dashboard

theultimate1 · 11-11-2009, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robfoster

If you compare it with woopra and some other analytics program like mint, then it is true that analytics is not good enough anymore.

The Age of Analytics, in all reality, is still being conceptualised. We haven't seen anything yet; and Web Analytics at that, is going to go places in the coming years.

So, let's hope that Google will rapidly develop Google Analytics in a more professional way, in the coming years.

PVReymond · 11-11-2009, 02:38 PM

Yes, the results aren't that accurate but they can give you an idea about what is going on in your sites.

Of course there are other services that you can use to compare the results and draw a conclusion.

Thanks,
^PV Reymond

actionplanbiz · 11-11-2009, 03:29 PM

works for me.. pretty consistent too

badfun · 11-11-2009, 03:38 PM

I also noticed a lot of direct traffic. For instance, one day recently I got a big spike in traffic. Tried to figure out why and where it came from, but Google just showed direct traffic. Did a whole bunch of people suddenly decide to type in my site's URL? I doubt it. But I never did find out where they came from.
brent

InternetMarketingIQ · 11-11-2009, 03:40 PM

These tools aren't really designed for you they are designed for Google to collect data. As such they don't really care if it's working that great as long as people keep using it. They only care about the data they are receiving. So the servers go down a few hours and things don't get tracked... what is their incentive to care? None until people abandon ship and that isn't happening.

eidorian · 11-12-2009, 08:37 AM

I heard many people made comments on why we should not use Google Analytics. As InternetMarketingIQ mentioned, they only care about the data they are receiving from this service. If you install Google analytics, they have full view of your website traffic. They can use the data to determine the quality of your site and it will affect your ranking in the search engine.

I have read articles on people performing test to see whether GA affect their ranking. Their conclusion was it does. Anyone got any experience to share?

11-10-2009, 12:37 PM	#1
markdsullivan IMMarkSullivan.com War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Peoria, IL Posts: 118 Thanks: 9 Thanked 9 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Does Google Analytics suck? I've been using analytics for a couple years now and it usually shows the referring sites that sent me traffic. But for one of my newer sites, all it reports is direct traffic. And lately, its been reporting less traffic than I am getting signups... so I don't know wtf is wrong with Google Analytics but something's seriously screwed up. Has anyone encountered problems like this? Thanks, Mark

11-10-2009, 12:43 PM	#2
steve-wilkins Steve Wilkins War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: SE England Posts: 193 Thanks: 14 Thanked 30 Times in 26 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I have been using google analytics for 2 years now and the data it sends back is always way different to the data I collect from my web host control panel and various other places. For example on Sunday google analytics reported 79 unique visitors to my blog that day where as all other resources reported que 236 unique visitors. Something seems off with GA for me. Just my thoughts! Steve.
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11-10-2009, 12:46 PM	#3
SurviveUnemployment Glad I Got Canned Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: NY Posts: 681 Thanks: 330 Thanked 61 Times in 57 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? For one thing it doesn't count people who have javascript disabled or ad-blocking software. I only use it to check the bounce rate.
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11-10-2009, 12:53 PM	#4
Jhf14 Name is Justin War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 82 Thanks: 15 Thanked 8 Times in 6 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I dont think any single one of those traffic reporting tools is 100% accurate... ive had troubles with analytics too.

11-10-2009, 07:05 PM	#5
davtom Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: United Kingdom. Posts: 48 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 7 Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I find google analytics so-so... An alternative that is up-and-coming is piwik from piwik.org. You host that yourself, so (a) it doesn't cost you anything extra; (b) Google aren't automatically getting their hands on your user's information; (c) the information is pretty much instant, whereas with Google it is delayed. You can also see the source code, so if you're a coder, you can expand it if you need to.

11-10-2009, 07:07 PM	#6
euhlir Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 310 Thanks: 20 Thanked 29 Times in 27 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? Every traffic report has different outputs. AWstats shows tons of traffic, while analytics may show nothing.
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11-10-2009, 09:56 PM	#7
DogScout Self Unemployed War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 2,343 Thanks: 697 Thanked 628 Times in 373 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I have a site that 3 other services claim gets 50k a month. Goggle says 500 a day. Dunno who is right, Google or the other three. if Goggle, the 500 people that come are pigs. (I sent 1,000 one day using Tweeter to see. Bit.ly said 1.000 went to the site. Google said 500 did, who knows.)
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11-10-2009, 10:01 PM	#8
DogScout Self Unemployed War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 2,343 Thanks: 697 Thanked 628 Times in 373 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? At the end of October, Google said my October bounce rate was 60% for the month on the 29th. on the 30th it said I had 500 visitors that day and my bounce rate was 27%. Statistically, that is impossible.
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11-10-2009, 10:05 PM	#9
automated1 Warrior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? Yes you're right I heard about google which what you said is impossible.
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11-10-2009, 10:15 PM	#10
DogScout Self Unemployed War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 2,343 Thanks: 697 Thanked 628 Times in 373 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? Google isn't the only one. Sitepoint says I get 90,000 visitors a month and 6.38 page views each and my host says 50,000 a month and 11.57 page views a visitor. Based on Downloads and 3 hosts over 5 years, I am guessing my host is closest to reality.
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11-11-2009, 07:53 AM	#11
mark z Banned War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 226 Thanks: 19 Thanked 26 Times in 19 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? Same as for many other areas I found useful to have several sources for analytics too. Generally speaking, none of those I use is perfect. Data "dance" way too often. But, until I found single one reliable tool for statistic purposes, I have to compare stats from all valuable tools in my arsenal. And GA is one of them for sure.

11-11-2009, 09:19 AM	#12
Debbie Songster Songster Shops War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: , Arizona , USA. Posts: 969 Blog Entries: 19 Thanks: 93 Thanked 178 Times in 86 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I just recently joined on with Web Analytics in Real Time \| Clicky I rarely look at Google analytics anymore. If you have Wordpress, the GetClicky plugin collects your data, shows you the results in real time and shows it on your WP dashboard
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11-11-2009, 02:38 PM	#14
PVReymond HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 337 Thanks: 0 Thanked 18 Times in 16 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? Yes, the results aren't that accurate but they can give you an idea about what is going on in your sites. Of course there are other services that you can use to compare the results and draw a conclusion. Thanks, ^PV Reymond
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11-11-2009, 03:29 PM	#15
actionplanbiz edgedweapons War Room Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 960 Thanks: 169 Thanked 64 Times in 62 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? works for me.. pretty consistent too
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11-11-2009, 03:38 PM	#16
badfun HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Toronto Posts: 132 Thanks: 52 Thanked 43 Times in 12 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I also noticed a lot of direct traffic. For instance, one day recently I got a big spike in traffic. Tried to figure out why and where it came from, but Google just showed direct traffic. Did a whole bunch of people suddenly decide to type in my site's URL? I doubt it. But I never did find out where they came from. brent

11-11-2009, 03:40 PM	#17
InternetMarketingIQ Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: US of A Posts: 2,190 Thanks: 47 Thanked 257 Times in 211 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? These tools aren't really designed for you they are designed for Google to collect data. As such they don't really care if it's working that great as long as people keep using it. They only care about the data they are receiving. So the servers go down a few hours and things don't get tracked... what is their incentive to care? None until people abandon ship and that isn't happening.
	Internet Marketing IQ™

11-12-2009, 08:37 AM	#18
eidorian Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Singapore Posts: 41 Thanks: 0 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Does Google Analytics suck? I heard many people made comments on why we should not use Google Analytics. As InternetMarketingIQ mentioned, they only care about the data they are receiving from this service. If you install Google analytics, they have full view of your website traffic. They can use the data to determine the quality of your site and it will affect your ranking in the search engine. I have read articles on people performing test to see whether GA affect their ranking. Their conclusion was it does. Anyone got any experience to share?
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