Is Google Analytics Dodgy?

[David]

Hey,

Earlier today, I visited my Google Analytics and notice a very sharp increase in unique hits. The day ticked over (server time) and a new day began. I checked a few minutes and this sharp increase is continuing.

Is GA dodgy? Has anyone had abnormal statistics before?

Cheers.

 

[Justin M]

I've had small discrepancies between GA and AWStats before but overall GA is a pretty solid stats program. Do you have any other stats you can compare to?

 

[David]

I've had small discrepancies between GA and AWStats before but overall GA is a pretty solid stats program. Do you have any other stats you can compare to?

Yes I do and it appears GA is the odd one out. 😕

 

[Justin M]

Turns out GA is a lot more inaccurate than I thought. http://tinyurl.com/5me8ep Most users there say it under-reports their traffic by as much as 70% which is unacceptably high.

 

[David]

Interesting article. However, my GA isn't under reporting; its displaying abnormally high statistics.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

I have never seen any abnormal statistics with any site I use it on compared to AWStats. Hmm, very weird although it is Javascript so could have been a problem with one of the visitors or some strange other occurrence?

 

[David]

Possibly, however this just happened earlier today, and I've had GA running for 3 weeks now, plus the countless other sites I've used GA on.

Just to give you an idea. These are for Visits, not Page Views:
April 22: 38
April 23: 43
April 24: 30
April 25: 503
April 26: 226

 

[Rich Edmonds]

Hmm it might not be a bad count on GA's side of things as it's a gradual drop. If it was say 30-40 after the 503 then sure it would seem like a bad estimate but it could be that an active website linked to a post of yours? Have you checked the visitors for that day to see where they all came from?

 

[Cloverfield]

I've always though GA was dodgy which is why I never use it for my stats. It's well out.

 

[Justin]

I never had any problems with them 🙂

 

[Cosmic]

Google analytics only works for users with JavaScript enabled. This results in bots and some legit users being skipped over.

@DotDavid: Possible proxies?

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I don't trust Google Analytics too much. So far from using it, it is under counting on the average of 1,000 page views a month.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

It is pretty accurate for me...

 

[David]

Little update: when the 26th ended, it recorded 397 visits, and for the 27th, it has 353 views.

@Traygon, possibly, but I don't think I have an active site linking to mine. The visitors are primarily US, UK and Australia. Nothing really out of the ordinary.

@Cosmic, maybe, but its been going on for 3 days now, so it appears consistent.

 

[Nebulous]

Ive never tried it... Going to test it out today. 😀

 

[Rich Edmonds]

What about visiting referrals? Click on those dates to see where the visitors came from (search engines, websites, direct bookmarks etc.) and see what is what 🙂

 

[David]

Direct Traffic
1,430.00 (67.61%)

Referring Sites
507.00 (23.97%)

Search Engines
83.00 (3.92%)

Other
95 (4.49%)

It may be a Javascript issue, or some caching issue from looking at the Direct Traffic.

 

[King Electro]

I checked mine today and it seems to be normal compared with my other site statistics counter.
Maybe you just have a drastic increase in visitors coming from certain sites during those times.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

Either people liked to directly visit your site from bookmarks, feeds etc. or there is a slight issue. It is gradually lowering right?

 

[Teekay]

Sometimes Google Analytics under report, when I check it in the host control panel, the stats are higher than GA. But then again those stats could be wrong as well.