Question re Google Analytics and its more accurate alternatives
-
Hi guys
There are two main issues we have with Google Analytics, and I'd really appreciate if anyone has the time to give an answer to that.
-
We completely miss organic traffic data before 7/22/2013 although our account is active since 2005. Any thoughts on that? Is it the not provided move that swiped out all data or something else?
-
Even for the data we do have there is lots of inaccuracies, and we are thinking on switching or at least adding a new analytics software, any recommendations? (FYI, it turns out we do not keep access logs on the server for more than 2 months, and we might fix that for future references, but now we are looking for external solution).
Any help will be much appreciated
Thanks
Lily
-
-
July 25, 2013 is when Analytics started using "Channels" as a dimension, so that is why it appears that there is no data before that--it doesn't mean there actually isn't any organic data.
As has already been mentioned, you can use a segment to see organic traffic before then--or you can choose "medium" as your primary dimension and select organic from there.
-
The major downside to Google Analytics is that it relies solely on Javascript. In other words, your clients' browsers have to load the JS, parse it and send the appropriate data back to Analytics. While this works for most visitors, it certainly doesn't work for all.
Log parsing is always the best solution because your server, by definition, gets all the traffic and can tell you with 100% accuracy your actual traffic. Most of the log parsers don't require you to keep your logs. Instead, they parse the logs and store relevant data in a database. The downside here is that you will have to have direct access to your server logs, which not all people have.
Some open source solutions include GoAccess and AWStats. There's also Cloudflare, which is more of a proxy but it can also feed you true numbers (although with less granular data, much like GA). There are numerous paid solutions as well.
-
Hi Lily,
For question 1 are you trying to see keyword related data or just organic traffic levels in general? If the latter you can use a segment to view organic traffic only. This would allow you to see organic traffic levels prior to 2013.
To do this click add segment located just below the top of the page (screenshot attached) and select "Organic Traffic" (second screenshot).
Give me a shout if you have anymore questions on this
Tim
109a77b3dc7befd3454e6103f8102277 ecaec5f322faefac26ea147aa3849dc9
-
Hi Lily,
1> You can still go to Acquisition >>Campaigns >> Organic Keywords to see historical data.***
For referral & direct traffic please check below URL once may be helpful for you.
============================
2>You can try Kissmetrics. (https://www.kissmetrics.com/)
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
-
Where will checkout option will reflect in google analytic for enhance ecommerce?
Hi, I have implemented enhance ecommerce checkout option like paypal, credit card but where it will reflect in google analytic? - https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/enhanced-ecommerce#checkout John
Reporting & Analytics | | varo0 -
Regular Expressions in Google Analytics
Hi All I've been struggling to create a regular expression for a Google Analytics goal step that would match the following: ^/specifictextstring/anytextstring/anytextstring/
Reporting & Analytics | | Cabbagefeet
^/specifictextstring/anytextstring/ However I don't want it to match any URLs that end with: /anytextstring**_**phonecall or /phonecall, for example: /specifictextstring/anytextstring/anytextstring/anytextstring**phonecall
/specifictextstring/anytextstring/anytextstring**phonecall
/specifictextstring/anytextstring/anytextstring/phonecall
/specifictextstring/anytextstring/phonecall Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance for all contributions.0 -
Google Analytics: Okay to change domain?
So, we are a long time user of GA and we're planning a domain change.
Reporting & Analytics | | jmueller0823
Does anyone know if I can 'change the domain' in GA so we don't lose our past data?
Thanks!0 -
Google Analytics and DNS change
Our new alumni application is going be tested at domain uva.imodules.com . We are going to collect traffic data with a Google analytics account number UA-884652-XX. So going to uva.imodules.com/myPage.html would send its data to Google Analytics with that account number. Then when it is ready for production we are going to just change the domain name of the application and switch the DNS over to dardencommunity.darden.virginia.edu . So going to dardencommunity.darden.virginia.edu /myPage.html would send its data to Google Analtics with that SAME account number. Aside from having the testing domain data in the same profile are there any other issues/problems we may run into?
Reporting & Analytics | | Darden0 -
Alternatives for google analytics multi account dashboard overview
Hi there, I like the new Google Analytics layout don't get me wrong but I really miss the old possibility to have a quick overview of all your accounts. Does anyone know an alternative for this? Please share your experiences and recommendations.
Reporting & Analytics | | Robbern0 -
How do I best segment tablets on Google Analytics
I would like to find a way to best segment out my tablet traffic to measure performance; however I'm finding that there are road blocks. It doesn't seem that device operating systems or screen resolutions have clear cut differences in the tablet/mobile versions. Has anyone here found a good way to create a "tablet" segment in Google Analytics? Right now I'm having to lean on solely the ipad traffic to get indicators of tablet performance. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | lvstrickland0 -
Google Analytics Alternatives
I am getting really fed up with how unreliable Google Analytics data is. Also, because I have several large sites I can't use the goal tracking or conversion funnel reports. What are the best alternatives to Google Analytics?
Reporting & Analytics | | mascotmike0