Using the same Google Analytics account for two sites

[polarking]

I have a friend who is concerned that his competition is trying something funny to show high traffic. The competition has two sites using the same GA tracking code. What impact would this have on his actual traffic.

One site has high traffic 7500 daily

the other site has 150 daily but gaining momentum

[Zoolander]

I don't know but I had a look at your website and I think the background is begging for a seamless Ice cube background like this one...

http://www.commentnation.com/background.php?MyFile=seamless_ice_cubes.php&ID=C113.php

Like your site is a fresh catch of tasty Salmon adorned by Ice cubes in a freezer keeping it fresh and ready to consume....well, maybe, but seriously I think it would look pretty cool.

[StreamlineMetrics]

Hmm, I don't think SEMRush uses Google Analytics data to come up with a website's traffic count since they don't have access to the GA account either. If you'd like me to investigate further and don't want to reveal the sites publicly, feel free to PM me the URLs in question and I can give you a more specific answer.

[polarking]

Well from what he has told me he uses Semrush to get the traffic count. He plugs his URL next to his competitions and was curious on how the other site is doing so much better. He looked at the source code and google the GA account to find that he had two sites using it.

[KevinBudzynski]

Bit confused as well. Each site should have a unique analytic codes. If you competition doesn't, who care as it doesn't help him.

[StreamlineMetrics]

I'm not sure if I understand this correctly but I'll give it a shot. You say the competition is using the same GA account on two sites, but how does your friend know what the competition's traffic numbers are? Does he have access to their Google Analytics account? And where does the competition "show its high traffic"?

Google Analytics simply tracks how many visits are coming to a website(s) and it doesn't have anything to do with impacting any actual traffic. One way to see if the competition is fudging its traffic numbers by saying all of the GA visits are for one site only when the traffic is really for two websites, then tell them to provide a GA report showing that all of the visitors are using the same Hostname.

You can see the Hostname by going into Google Analytics and clicking on Custom Reporting. Choose "Unique Visitors" as the metric and "Hostname" as the dimension.