One of our clients has been using Google Analytics during the last year, and recently we ran a test installing the Analyzati script on his website.
And we have here the comparison results for you: Google Analytics is not accurate and is losing some valuable information. Take a look and check by yourself:
As you can see, We have measure the traffic between August 14 and August 20, and the difference is huge: 107
Let’s talk about the reasons your data is unlikely to perfectly match your other data sources, like Analyzati.
Ad Blockers
Nowadays privacy matters. More individuals are trying to stay away from advertising abuse, and it is more common to use ad blockers while browsing web pages.
Google Analytics is not tracking these visitors and all these users are excluded.
Javascript errors
Sometimes the website code breaks and we can find the cause and fix it, but sometimes not.
Maybe a simple plugin or an extension in your website, is stopping Google Analytics for firing.
Page timeouts
When a web page is loaded it can be interrupted because of server-side events, network connection interrupted, equipment failures or many other reasons.
If the Google Analytics tracking code is not loaded because of these timeouts, obviously there is no tracking.
Data sampling
Data sampling in Google Analytics involves analyzing a subset of data to understand the entire data set. Instead of assessing all your website data, for example, Google Analytics samples a slice of that data to provide actionable and accurate reports.
This is a cost-effective way to estimate website analytics. However, it is not nearly as accurate.
One device, multiple visitors
If two people visit the same site for the first time from the same computer, Google Analytics only notices one unique visitor. Just imagine 100 people visiting from the same computer at a library. It’s just one visitor counted.
Different device, same visitor
Your digital life is surrounded by a laptop, mobile phone and a tablet. This is the typical scenario. If one person visits your website from three devices, then Google Analytics will tell you that three unique people visited.
Cookie Banners
Google Analytics needs an extensive cookie policy, including the typical pop-up with the Accept and Reject button.
If the visitor Rejects the policy, Google Analytics has no idea of the visit.
Referrals: Bots and spam
Spam is everywhere and we get too used to live with them. They can send fake referral traffic to your website, they can fake events, transactions, pageviews and many more.
This fake traffic inflates your Google Analytics and is very common in the Affiliate marketing world because commission is based on traffic.
Final words
There is not an Analytics provider with 100% accuracy, but now you have some reasons to try fixing your Google Analytics or better yet, give it a try to Analyzati and get real numbers for your peace of mind.