Universal Analytics - is it awarding traffic incorrectly ?
-
A few days ago deployed a new site. A funny thing happened within one day. Google Analytics commenced reporting Organic traffic as lifting by 25%. At the same time Google Analytics commenced reporting that direct traffic dropped by 25%. All other traffic sources remained at the same level. This is all being reported through GA Universal. Has anyone experienced this before? Any advice is appreciated.
Also noted that with Google Webmaster is reporting, since the day of the new site deployment, a 40% drop in impressions and click. Reported referrals on this deployment day also went through the roof.
All of the Google tools I am depending on are not supporting my discovery of a solution to this. If anyone has been through this on universal analytics or traditional analytics please help! Offering lots of good karma points in return.
Cheers.
-
Hi, has this issue been resolved? We'd love an update, thanks!
Christy
-
Well pretty sure that's your problem as HTTPS sites to HTTP will drop the referrer and will make sure it's direct traffic.
-
Hi Martijn, Yes - we did a migration to full HTTPS on the same day from HTTP. I believe this would have caused the shift in reassigning organic & direct traffic.
-
Are you on a HTTPS server?
-
Thanks for the response Andy.
I have just messaged you the site link. So look forward to discussing and picking your brain on this.
Cheers
-
While I do use GA, I am a skeptic and believe that the software does favour Organic and Paid traffic, to make you think you are more reliant on Google than you probably are.
But on the other hand, Groupon did a test and found 60% of its direct traffic was actually organic (http://searchengineland.com/60-direct-traffic-actually-seo-195415), but the problem is its all upto the browser passing the information back to which ever solution you are using to track traffic.
If you want to share your web url (either on here or in a private message) I will take a look for you and make sure when you switched you didn't make a minor error which is causing traffic to drop.
Which day did you see the movement, as earlier this week there was a lot of movement in the SERPs, Google hasn't confirmed an update, but its believed there was on (so it could just be related to this, rather than your implementation of UA).
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 - Tracking multiple thankyou pages?
Hi Guys, I want to track email opt-ins for multiple thank you pages. The setup is as follows: http://image.prntscr.com/image/57632e05a15f42fda0b8ffec2d176460.png I have not yet built the thank you pages, so i was wondering what the URL should be to make it easy to track them in GA? I'm thinking: domain.com/thankyou-page/page1 Then using regular expression in GA to track /thankyou-page/ Would this be a good way to go about it? Cheers. f6c7r0
Reporting & Analytics | | spyaccounts110 -
Universal cookie loss specific traffic
Hi there, A month ago we have installed the Universal Analytics tracking code on our website (www.smartphonehoesjes.nl). Since that time, direct traffic has risen unnaturally and organic traffic dropped unnaturally. I dived into this problem and I discovered there is a cookie loss on when visitors are switching from /cart to the first step checking out. The problem is that not all browsers cause these cookie issues, only Safari and IE older versions (9 and older) and some cases of Chrome. All iPads cause cookie issues (50% of all cases). iPhones cause not a single problem because we are using a separate mobile (m.) site which does not cause cookie problems. We don't have a mobile site for tablets yet, soon it will come. My biggest question is: how can I fix the Safari desktop cookie loss after switching domains from /cart to the first step of the chckout process? Olders versions of IE will slowly fade out and the iPad problem will be fixed when the mobile website is available for tablets. I hope someone can help me.
Reporting & Analytics | | MarcelMoz
Thanks in advance. Marcel0 -
Analytics options for website builder
I'm working on a website builder with a few friends and we would like to track traffic statistics for each site built on our platform. We're looking for a solution to dynamically generate analytics for each site published on our platform. I've used Google Analytics for a number of years, but I'm not sure if it's capable of doing something like what we're looking for. Any chance someone could throw me a bone? Thank you in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | NickMacario0 -
Google Analytics Organic Accuracy?
Hi, On a cool summers day, I was quenching my thirst for SEO Knowledge in the depths of Google analytics, When I stumbled upon a most troublesome sight. I was Browsing the data inside Acquisition->Keywords->Organic and comparing them to Acquisition->Search Engine Optimization->Landing Pages, to find the results quite questionable.. Since Keywords->Organic measure the visits from the organic results, and Search Engine Optimization->Landing Pages measures the clicks onto one of my landing pages from Google, I assumed they should be the same or very close, (besides Keywords->Organic having visits from other search engines) but they were not the same, as a matter of fact it was telling me that Keywords->Organic visits = 1,474, 27.19% of total(5,422) and Search Engine Optimization->Landing Pages, clicks = 1,548 154.80% of total (1000). Even worst the Search Engine Optimization -> Queries clicks = 1,123, 160.43% of total(700). I have been searching, and come up empty handed in the answer so does anyone know why Google is showing me different results and strange numbers that don't make sense? Any information is greatly appreciated?
Reporting & Analytics | | KBB_Digital0 -
Google analytics and software applications
Hei Guys. I think i know the answer for this one but i thought i ask you in order to be 100% sure. Ok let's go.. So i set up url based goals in Google analytics. My website (what are running on WordPress) has google analytics enabled but just before customers makes desired action i have to send them to the application page. Trick is that the application page is not running on wordpress and doesn't have google analytic tracking. After customer fills the application form i send him to my /thank-you page on my wordpress site. My question is: Does the conversion still count because customer left my website for a minute in order to fill in the application form? Best Regards, Tauri
Reporting & Analytics | | seopartnermarketing0 -
Google Analytics
Good Morning, I am trying to understand 2 issues in Google Analytics. 1. When look at : Traffic Source --> SEO --> Quesrios - i see the impressions column and its always a whole number 1550, 500, 5500, etc.. I never saw (for example) 702, 313, etc... impressions Can anyone explain why and how does it work? 2. In the same report i see my AVG. position for each query, the question is how come i have AVG, position of (290, 230, 190) for some of the queries and still i get clicks on these queries. My guess is that from time to time these queries have better position and the clicks are from these time. Do you familiar with a way to the the distribution of a specific query over time? for example: 1.3.2013 avg position = 4 2.3.2013 avg position = 7 3.3.2013 avg position = 2 4.3.2013 avg position = 8 etc... 3. This report say its for: "Top 1,000 daily queries" - What does it mean? Thank you and sorry for this long question SEOwiseUs
Reporting & Analytics | | iivgi0 -
Track banner ad with google analytics
Hi We have a top banner ad on an external renown site only to attrack traffic. It does show up in google analytics, but i have seen some increase in (direct) / (none) traffic. Is there anyway i can track it when banner is showed from 2 separate URLs http://www.tv2torget.no/bedrift/netthandel/ and http://www.tv2torget.no/bedrift/netthandel/barneklaer/ Thanks Dan Lærum
Reporting & Analytics | | danlae0 -
AW Stats vs Google Analytics
Hey Moz Community, I am looking to get opinions on the best practice for analytics/traffic analysis. From experience I know that AW Stats reads high and Google Analytics reads low for traffic for reason in this article http://www.smartz.com/blog/2009/01/23/analytic-confusion-%E2%80%93-awstats-vs-google-analytics/ It drives me a little nuts how far off both are for some pages. I have one article that shows 100 views (GA) and AW stats shows 5 times that number of views. Any suggestions or systems you recommend? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | johnshearer0