Google Analytics unexplainable traffic spike
-
Viewing this report **Behaviour > Site content > All pages **with primary dimensions of **Page ** and **Page title **are showing different results for one specific page on our site.
We noticed a huge spike in pageviews and entrances to that specific page on our site. The user flow report shows traffic going through and from the page (in high volume) from other pages on the site which suggests that it's not the usual case of spam referrals.
When I view the report above by page, I get unrealistic data. Over 600% increase in pageviews and over 900% increase in entrances. When I view by page title however, I get realistic results.
Can anyone help shed some light on why these two reports will be different?
Anyone else seeing similar issues?
-
Very strange that you CPC data shows a much smaller increase than GA, especially since they are connected. Maybe a quick call to Google to see if maybe GA glitched during that period.
Here is the page for Google support, I would try the paid search avenue as that seems to get you better results when chatting with them. Just mention your AdWords data give a different story than GA and see what they can figure out.
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1385067
Good luck.
ht
tps://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1385067
-
Thanks for your reply Katherine.
I'll try to use that app to see if it can help. I had already checked to see if it was a device type issue or browser issue but had no luck. The traffic increase was spread among desktops, tablets and phones each recording over 600% increases.
I'll give the app a try. Thanks
-
Thanks for your reply Shawn.
The traffic is coming from Organic, Direct and Paid mediums. This is where it starts to get interesting. Adwords data shows only 18 clicks for the related campaign while the report shows over 1000% increase in entrances for CPC traffic.
Using click data, there was only a recorded 20% increase in clicks from 15 to 18. How can it be that the page is recording such a massive increase in entrances from CPC traffic? Then there is the whole mystery surrounding organic and direct mediums.
I had a look in GWT as per your suggestions and cannot see any growth in search term. I initially thought an increase in the SERPs could be the reason but I soon ruled this out when I realised the data for both page and page title were not correlated whereas it is for other pages.
-
Flip the secondary dimension to see if you see any patterns. I would first look at source/medium, then user/mobile to see if it's a desktop/mobile related issue.
You could also try this plugin: https://mark.shinyapps.io/ga-effect
-
First thought, where is the traffic coming from > organic, email, direct, etc.?
You can also view Search Analytics in console (GWT). I would view pages and select the time period of the spike, compare it to the previous period then view queries to see if there was a spike in impressions for any terms. Check positions and see if also during that time any term increased in rank. It could be with the recent algo updates that you've benefited from a higher position that has helped.
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
-
Cross domain tracking Google Analytics
Hi there, Got a question on cross domain tracking: We have a couple of TLD's to serve localized content to our visitors, next to our main .com TLD where our app is running as well in a subdomain. Situation is this: Local sites:
Reporting & Analytics | | jorisbrabants
marketingsite.be
marketingsite.com.br
marketingsite.fr Main site: marketingsite.com
app.marketingsite.com Conversion gets triggered when somebody ends up in app.marketingsite.com/firstuse for example. People can sign up at the local site filling in their email but they end up in app.marketingsite.com/firstuse Reading this article on cross domain tracking I'm getting a bit confused on the setup of the tracking code itself. The sample code provided shows these two lines: ga('require', 'linker'); ga('linker:autoLink', ['maindomain.com','targetdomain.com']); Now the question 🙂 Is it correct when I think that maindomain should be replaced with our local TLD's on every one of those, and that targetdomain is where the conversion happens? In this case the .com site?0 -
How to FILTER in Google Analytics an ad campaign from linkedin?
Hi mozzers We are setting up an a linkedin ad campaign for our agency and want to track its traffic and conversions. The linkedin ad will carry UTMs for each link. For tracking this campaign accurately I thought about creating a new GA View with a specific filter. So my question is about the filtering, should i use the INCLUDE, REFERRAL with pattern LINKEDIN.COM (see image)? if not what would be the best way to track this campaign? My other concern is that we are also running other a job ad on linkedin and I feel these hits will be tracked as well. Is there a way to separate those 2 campaigns? Thanks guys! MzE5hqE.png
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
E-commerce data import Google Analytics
Hi there, Since a few weeks we have started a cooperation with a big online wholesale company which now sells our products. I want to import simple E-commerce data: amount of transactions and revenue. More detailed data such as amount of products, name of products, etc. is not necessary in the first place. Now I discovered the 'data import' functionality in Google Analytics but I can't find any suitable option for E-commerce data import. The data from the wholesale company is gathered in a nice export in a separate system, so there should be a way ti import this data into Analytics. Could anybody help me with this? Any advice is welcome! Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | MarcelMoz
Marcel0 -
Google Shopping tracking as organic traffic - help!
Hey guys, I have an eCommerce client who sometimes runs Google PLA and Google Shopping campaigns. However, we don't run his AdWords for him, just do his SEO. At the moment, the Shopping campaigns track as organic traffic within Analytics. And I can't see any way to change this! It's so infuriating. How do I change this? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | jasarrow0 -
Conflicting numbers in Google Analytics
I am getting 2 completely different numbers in Google Analytics.According to the graph on my Dashboard organic traffic decreased ~40% comparing June 7 -> June 6.However, when I dig a bit deeper and look at the 2 dates specifically compared to each other I get a `3% increase in traffic.When I look at the traffic on just June 7, I get the number indicating the increase.Any ideas or someone getting similar conflicting numbers??
Reporting & Analytics | | theLotter0 -
Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Setup for Agencies
Hi, As agencies, what are people finding to be the best practices for allowing multiple members of the agency's team to access client WMT and GA data? Have a generic "analytics@myagency.com" account that's used for the shares, that anyone in the agency can use as needed (limited, of course, not admin). Have the individual person at the company use their company email for the share for each particular client? employee@agency.com. Yet what happens when we need someone else to check the GA or WMT data? Any advice is much appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | Titan552
Thank you!0 -
Using Regex for Goals in Google Analytics
I’ve got a website with 20 different forms; and I’d like to track all 20 form completions with one Goal in Google Analytics. The completion-page URLs follow the pattern below (the website uses Drupal CMS) Form One: www.acme.com/node/2990/done?sid=651 Form Two: www.acme.com /node/2991/done?sid=785 Form Three: www.acme.com /node/2992/done?sid=1021 Form Four: www.acme.com /node/2993/done?sid=459 I believe that there is a way I can use regex so Google Analytics will track if any of these completion URLs appears. Looking for guidance how to format the regex statement.
Reporting & Analytics | | TopFloor0 -
How to change a url for google analytics account
We recently changed the url of a client's website. Is there a way to change the url on the ga account instead of creating a new account so that we don't lose comparative data? Thanks! Sorry- I know this is a novice question.
Reporting & Analytics | | marketing12340