Google Analytics unexplainable traffic spike

[OptiBacUK]

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?

[Shawn_Huber]

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

[OptiBacUK]

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

[OptiBacUK]

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.

[KatherineWatierOng]

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

[Shawn_Huber]

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.