Question re Google Analytics and its more accurate alternatives

[wspwsp]

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.

1. 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?

2. 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

[Linda-Vassily]

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.

[Highland]

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.

[the_timallen]

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

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[Alick300]

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.

============================

http://www.prettyklicks.com/blog/solution-referral-and-direct-traffic-data-disappeared-in-analytics-before-25th-july-2013/817/

2>You can try Kissmetrics. (https://www.kissmetrics.com/)

Thanks