Google Analytics Stopped Tracking Visits - NEED HELP!
-
Hi Moz Community,
I have about 10 sites, static HTML sites and WordPress sites, which ALL stopped tracking Google Analytics on August 2nd. They go to a flat-line! Dead! No data!
Has anyone else experienced this either currently or before? I have confirmed all code is correct as it's been tracking these sites for years. One site gets 5,000+ visits a month and they are sitting at only 1,500 now and will be a fun conversation to have with the client.
If all code is correct, what should I do? How do I overcome this without having to re-create another account/tracking ID?
Never dealt with something like this before and there is not much on the web or in other forums. Would appreciate any help or advice or tips! - Patrick
-
Great to hear that it's fixed.
We call that master view a Raw account, and label the rest as Filtered (Filter Type). We use Filtered (Primary) as the main account that we look at day to day. So yes - definitely set those master accounts up.
-
Hi Kane,
Actually, that is exactly what happened. One of our developers added an | exclusion at the end of their sole Spam Bot Filter and it in turn, shut down collection of data. So, I worked with the Google Adwords support team and they determined that was the cause.
We removed it, I picked up some new, great pointers from them, and all are back up and running. They advised to always have a Master Analytics View which collects ALL data (even the spammers), then another called Filtered View, which eliminates the spammers and then a Test View to play with new filters.
It is something so simple to implement and now I know moving forward with all new clients/accounts and have been spending time updating all current accounts to have these 3 views in Analytics.
- Patrick
-
Hey Patrick,
I have a good guess as to the problem. Has anyone installed Bot Filters on these accounts? If someone installed a bunch of bot filters incorrectly (for example a hostname exclusion instead of a hostname inclusion) that would cause tracking to disappear despite proper on-site installation.
August 2nd was the day that Moz published a blog post on this exact topic, so that in particular makes this my best guess.
If you want to post screenshots of the filters on these account I'm happy to glance at them.
-
Hi Alick,
Correct, none of the affected 14 sites were or have been penalized by Google for any of their reasons (malware, spammy links, etc). Actually most are just your standard brochure type informational website and only 2 are actively doing any SEO/PPC campaigns.
We checked Real Time and saw they were not working. We also confirmed the notices in GA for the tracking code not working any more. I got that tip from you, so thank you very much for that.
I have re-entered all the GA codes and/or plugins for the WP sites and will monitor more today and over the weekend. It was a completely random event which doesn't make any sense.
- Patrick
-
Hi Dirk,
Thanks for the tip on installing the Tag Assistant. I have done that now and will toy around with it today/this weekend. I confirmed that all the tracking codes were properly set up, however, in the GA profiles, you visit > Admin > Tracking Info > Tracking Code > and I saw notices from each of the 14 affected sites that the code wasn't being recognized.
I believe I have corrected the issue, but still doesn't explain why for years there was no issues, no hosting changes, no WP changes (as it would've affected so many more sites, and not just mine or my clients, but 1,000's around the world from a plugin update or something), not isolated to just WP sites as I had HTML sites affected.
I will be monitoring and checking these sites and all the others just in case. Never seen anything like this before. Thanks for your reply!
- Patrick
-
Thanks for the reply, David.
What is weird is of the 80+ accounts I can see and manage, 14 in total were affected once I got through checking all site profiles. On Aug 2nd, the 14 sites go to zero.
The odd part is some are WordPress sites and 5 are static HTML sites. Some are hosted in GoDaddy. Some are not. Some sites I haven't even logged into for months (especially the HTML sites). They track everything up to Aug 1st as normal.
- I checked all front end source code for the GA code = confirmed positive
- I checked for duplicate GA code = confirmed negative
- I checked the WP sites for combating GA plugins = confirmed negative (some were using Google Analyticator and some just the normal Google Analytics and some using Yoast or All In One SEO, but none of them had 2 GA plugins)
- I checked the Filters as some have Filters, others don't. The one's that have the Filters are using the same ones to block referral spam as my 3 company sites, and pretty much all of the others I manage, so it can't be Filters
- I checked for spacing in the code as suggested above = confirmed negative
What I've had to do is remove whatever plugin they were using. Then installed another and authenticated. I will know by morning if that worked as the "Tracking Code" is not showing errors and is showing that is is actively tracking data. The Real Time is as well, so I assume my trick worked, but want to make sure it remains.
- Patrick
-
It seems extremely weird that ALL of your sites have stopped recording and not just the odd one!
We often get this issue with our clients as they feel the need to go into their Wordpress sites and add the Analytics code them selves. Often causing it to duplicate the code and stop Analytics recording the data properly!
First, I would 'view source' of the web pages and check that their is only one set of Analytics code on the site
Then check to see if there are any filters on the Analytics account that is causing it to block the dataNot convinced that they will solve your issue as for them to affect multiple sites all at once is weird, and you may have already checked the above! But it's worth a shot.
-
On top of what Alick already mentioned you could also install the Chrome Tag Assistant plugin to double check that your code is really sending data - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tag-assistant-by-google/kejbdjndbnbjgmefkgdddjlbokphdefk
When your traffic drops to zero is almost certain that there is an issue with the tracking code.
rgds
Dirk
-
Hi Patric,
I presume your site is not penalized by Google.
There are a few ways you can check to see if the Google Analytics tracking code on your website is working.
- Check your Real-Time reports - If you see data in these reports, it means that your tracking code is currently collecting data.
- Check the Tracking Status in your property - Which tells you if your tracking code is working or not.
- Please also check analytics code for any extra space.
Thanks
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
-
Google Analytics / Facebook UTM
Hello, I have a quick question. I am setting up conversion tracking for my Facebook ads, so I am giving each ad set a tracking URL (UTM) in order to see which ads are converting etc. Is it possible to see on analytics how much I am spending on these ads or a cost per conversion? Or does the tracking merely track general analytics data such as bounce rate, exit rate, revenue generated etc? Kind Regards, James
Reporting & Analytics | | SO_UK0 -
How to track google auto search suggestion click?
Hello Guys, In google.co.uk when I search SEL and google gives me option of different different sites and when I click on any one site then that click tracking I need. I have attached the screenshot to understand easily. Is it possible to track such things or possible via server logs etc? TV99h
Reporting & Analytics | | micey1231 -
We have a client that wants to apply UTM URL tagging to track local organic traffic in Google Analytics. Is there any benefit in doing this?
One of our clients requested that we apply UTM URL tagging to better track organic traffic in Google Analytics. We found this to be an odd request because we are most familiar with UTM tracking for special campaigns (referral tracking, PPC, email tracking, etc). Is there any benefit of applying UTM tags to urls to analyze local organic traffic in Google Analytics? Are there any resources out there about this? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | RosemaryB0 -
Can you track two Google Analytics Accounts on one site?
If you have a site that had an old analytics account and then implemented a new one is it possible to run tracking code that records to both accounts without causing your site or data issues? We are doing this so we don't loose data at any point - ideally it wouldn't have been split between the two but making one redundant isn't an option. Ideally we would have merged the data from both accounts and had one - however the research we have done points to this not being a possibility - unless one of you guys knows different? It would be great if anyone has experience on any this.. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | ChrisAllbones0 -
Help w/ Google Event tracking w/ new Universal analytics.js
I want to implement Google event tracking after my visitors complete an estimate form. The form provides them an approximate range of costs based on their widget and widget amount. I have the php coding done, but I don't know JS and I need to send an event upon completion of the estimate form. However, all of Google's examples are button click events. How do I send the event upon completing a form if there is no separate landing page? If I have my Google analytics code on the page as well, would simply adding the following the completed estimate code work?
Reporting & Analytics | | TheDude0 -
Where to find "Keywords that Sent Organic Search Visits" in Google Analytics?
Hi everyone, Tried searching for this answer but couldn't find it. In the new analytics, I can see that there is a graph that shows the number of unique keywords that brought traffic to our site sorted by weeks. I can't seem to find this data in Google Analytics. I can only find the number of visits but not sorted by how many keywords, instead it is just # of visits from all of the keywords. Thanks in advance. SZ
Reporting & Analytics | | swzhai0 -
Google Analytics underreporting
I have a site selling items, I use paypal buttons and get a report using ipn back from paypal telling me when I have sold a item. I also have a Google analytics event setup on the button, and one on the confirmation page.
Reporting & Analytics | | AlanMosley
For example in the last few days I have sold over 10 items from the website, but have only 2 events from the button and none from the confirmation page. The confirmation page depends on the user getting redirected back from PayPal so I can see that being upper reported, but there is no way you can buy without clicking the button.
I have the chrome addon from google to debug your analytics code and it fires every time.
The figures seem to report only about 20% of events over a long period of time. If it was not working at all, I could assume I have not set things up correctly but this is not the case, I get a regular flow of events but at about 205 of sales.
I am very disappointed with GA, seems a waste of time. anyone else had the same expirence?0 -
Strange pages visited in analytics
Hi Guys I am finding this in one of my sites analytics allot /tr-url/en-ru.ru/ followed directly by the site in questions domain name and page of interest....like this.. /tr-url/en-ru.ru/www.example.com/blue-widget/ and example.com being the analytics of the site in question. Are these pages that have been translated? like by yandex or something in that line....I cannot seem to find anything on this anywhere. What is this and should i be concerned?? thanks for the help cheers
Reporting & Analytics | | nomad-2023230