Analytics oddity
-
This one has me a bit puzzled... I was just conducting a bit of routine analysis on a client's site, when I noticed avg. traffic doubled on one particular day. Now, this was easy to spot, since avg daily traffic for this site is 100 per day. The site also has approximately 100 pages of content. Here is the odd part... the spike was clearly attributed to Direct traffic and from a specific network in Palo Alto. The Bounce Rate was 100% and it appears that every page on the site was visited - very briefly.
Any clues as to what may have triggered this? A competitor maybe? An unkown bot?
I am looking forward to your thoughts.
-
I really would like to know the answer, because it happens in some of my sites too.
-
I agree. Don't think it's a bot. Can't believe I was so focused upon GA, I forgot about the raw server data! Unfortunately, the host just updated and IP info. I wanted to look at is no longer present.
-
I did just that, and you are right on the money. Upon drilling down, everything was the same. Strange thing is... I can't see one person accessing 100+ pages.
For the isolated "abnormal" visits in question - Bounce Rate was 100% - Avg. Visit - Duration was 00:00:00 - classified as Direct Traffic
-
I don't think so... why? From a non-technical perspective: I have not seen this sort of activity appear on other client accounts. For example, one domain I monitor has well over 1,000 pages indexed. If a bot crawled and GA included the crawl, the traffic spike would have been easily spotted.
-
I doubt it is an automated bot, as it would not fire GA traffic. Best way to determine what happened is to look at your server log for that specific day and analyse the raw traffic data.
Depending on the nature of the website, it could very well be a hack-attack or competitors looking at your site. You will be able to get some information from GA (i.e. OS and browser versions), but to really determine what happened, the server logs are your best bet.
-
I would be that if you drill down to the browser version, flash version, etc. that it'd also be identical. I've seen this once or twice, and for me, it turned out that it was one computer and either GA was messed up, or the browser was set oddly -- it was really one person visiting many pages on the site, but for whatever reason it showed in GA as multiple visits each going to one page. I can't say for sure that's what is happening for you, but that's what it was in my case (I happened to have a second analytics package and was able to see that it was truly the same user).
-
It sounds like a bot to me. Whose bot? Hmm...could be any bot that accessed your sitemap.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
ECommerce Tracking in Analytics - Should I use a plugin or do it manually?
Hi, I have a WordPress site (woocommerce integrated). I would like to know should I use a plugin to enable e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics or I should do it manually with GTM. Which is a better way? Will using a plugin to enable e-commerce tracking slow down my site? Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | Mr.Suren0 -
Google Analytics Numbers Are Weird
Hi, I'm having a strange problem from past one month. My website gets about 10k pageviews a month with an average bounce rate of 50%. Lately, I observed a strange thing. The avg time on page of visitors from selected countries is less than 1 second and the bounce rate is zero!! How is this possible? This is happening from past one month and it would be really helpful if you guys could tell me what exactly is happening?? Ive attached a screenshot for better understanding. website url : https://www.specbee.com/ fIAXXgF 3zQuBAN
Reporting & Analytics | | ganesh10 -
Analytics Tracking in China
I am setting up a Chinese domain and I was wondering if anyone has experience with using Google Analytics for tracking in the country and if it really works or if Baidu is the better solution for the website. The website will be hosted in the US so I don't know if that makes any difference with getting around "The Great Firewall". I would prefer to us GA if possible because I am extremely familiar with the platform but I am more concerned with getting accurate tracking data for the site. Thank you in advance and any help would be greatly appreciated. Brooke
Reporting & Analytics | | Ryan_Henry0 -
Universal Google analytics e-commerce tracking code?
Hi Mozzers, I have never setup a universal google analytics e-commerce tracking code before and my concern is what exactly do I need to add on the cart thank you page? Can someone send me a sample of code I need to be adding? What kind of customization does it require? The more details you can provide the better! Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Pinterest\Instagram analytics available?
Is there a way to add Instagram and Pinterest analytics to Moz? Is this already available and I am just missing it? VERY interested in this... thank you!
Reporting & Analytics | | Isaac55891 -
Problem setting up new view in Analytics
Hi, I'm having problems finding where to set up a new view in Analytics. I have seen https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009714?hl=en but get lost at point 3 (In the View column, click the menu, then click Create new view.) In the menu there is no option that I can see. If I go into the one view that is set up, I also can't see anything 'View Settings' that would allow me to copy the view and then modify it. Am I missing something? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Houses0 -
Google Analytics Campaigns
I need the help of a smart Mozzer. In Google Analytics: Traffic Sources>Sources>Campaigns all the results shown are from RSS. Can anyone help me with why RSS results would be displayed in Campaigns?
Reporting & Analytics | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Seomoz wont connect to my google analytics. waht am I doing wrong?
I enter my details and it says I am connected to a google account but there is GA found, what gives?. PS. I do have a analytics acount I have been using for years, and have input the correct user and pass. I even get to the page in google to allow SEOmoz access to my acount and I confirm then nothing shows up in SEOmoz?
Reporting & Analytics | | stevem980