How do sites without access to a site's analytical data, determine a site's organic traffic?
-
I've recently used a organic traffic checker that showed you your traffic compared to each google algo update. I was interested in how they derived the organic traffic totals for each month, without having access to our site's google analytics? I've since compared the data to historical google analytics data and it's not wrong, isn't 100% match either but isn't far from fact.
So if they're predicting or making a guess, it's rather spot on, site crawlers and SERPs snapshots only provide so much info, I'm just wondering where they get the rest from and how?
-
Exactly where they get it will depend on which tool you're using but if they haven't got your GA login info, it's probably pulling from something like SEMrush or a similar tool.
From my understanding, these tools use reasonably accurate extrapolation to give you those numbers. For example, if they have 1 million people with their toolbar installed and tracking their usage data, they can then make some educated assumptions and suggest that if you're getting X number of visits 1 million people, your actual numbers will be approximately Y, based on a complex algorithm to factor in certain elements, I'm sure.
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
-
Sudden drop in traffic since website redesign – can't spot double firing sessions pre-update
Hi all, We launched an updated website around mid-April and have seen a long-term drop in unique page views and sessions since then. Between 25-35%. Page views returned to normal within a month, however. In terms of acquisition, we've not lost referrals or direct traffic, just organic sessions. I haven't seen any significant Google updates except for 'Fred' but that was in March (pre-website update). We did have to do some 301s and fix up an HTML and XML sitemap, etc, post launch – but that's been in place for a while now so shouldn't still have such an effect? We are also struggling with load speed at the moment, working on this at the moment. Didn't think this had a such a significant impact on ranking however. We've lost mostly non-UK traffic, especially USA. We're actually climbing rankings for a lot of new keywords I'm targeting, so I can't see how our SEO has been hampered. Frustratingly, I wasn't using Search Console or Moz Pro before this update, so can't compare much in the way of keyword traffic (I know I feel very silly now). I don't know if it's a reporting issue (I wish it was). I mean we had both GTM and GA tags on the website (I didn't know this until I looked into it) but these were present post website-launch. And I haven't found enough double firing sessions or page views to suggest we used to be getting double figures anyway. Before this, we were ranking brilliantly and getting more organic traffic than ever. All the best,
Reporting & Analytics | | landport0 -
20% Dip in Traffic. What could be happening?
Hello Dear Community Yesterday I had a sudden drop in visits - screenshot attached. It shows how yesterday Friday 17/10 has had a dip in visits vs Friday 10/10 (1 week ago). I have an authority blog in Italy with over 90k monthly visits. I do now black-hat SEO stuff, and my content is rich. Organic traffic grew 85% y-o-y and I was actually on a nice, slow growth trend, but now, 20% dip. The things I did before all this happened, and which could have had an impact (but I'm not sure about) are: Configured Max CDN and W3 Total Cache (before I was just using SiteGround's Super Cacher plugin and that's it). So now my site is faster by a lot although I'm having issues like I mention in point 2. I had to clear the cache at least a hundred times as I was configuring Optin Monster for lead generation I changed my Google Analytics code from the old version to the new version (universal) Besides this I check my best keywords in RankTracker and it looks like nothing happened to my rankings. Yet a few of my most popular posts which gets roughly the same amount of visits everyday for the past few months, had a dip of 30% more or less. I also added a screenshot of my Webmaster tool dashboard. Everything is ok and there are no messages. Also yesterday was not a national holiday in my country (Italy) so everything should have been normal. Please share with me your thoughts about this. What else should I check to get an idea? What do you think it could be? Thank you! Andrea 2vII81q yXn6zBD
Reporting & Analytics | | Andrew_IT0 -
Conversion analytics goals
Hello, I have to configure my analytics goals for my SEO estrategy. In Google Analytics I can choose between: destiny, duration, Pages/screens per session and event. But I don't have the best criteria for select each one. What are the best options for a content site and for a e - commerce? Otherwise, I wanna know which is a good bounce rate for a content site? And what is a good Avg. Page Load Time (sec)? Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | Arkix0 -
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.
Reporting & Analytics | | Oxfordcomma0 -
The curse of (not provided) data....
Buongiorno from 23 degrees C Wetherby UK 🙂 Do you ever get the impression Google doesnt Like SEO practitioners? Thing is the (not provided) snag in the key word Analytics data is a complete pain in arse. Yes you can go into webmaster tools and get a feel for organic keyword data but the joy stops abruptly when you need a full picture of traffic acquisition from a specific keyword. So my question is please:
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing
"When a client asks, give me traffic data acquired from an organic phrase". How on earth can you give an accurate answer? And to add salt into the wound the traffic data is going to be less so your SEO efforts are going to take a hit". Is the answer use another analytics service?
Grazie tanto,
David0 -
Analytics tagging parameters effect on site SEO
One of the effective tools used in analytics tagging is the use of analytics parameters that starts with '?' or '#'. Example on site tagging: Main link: www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/ www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=topnav www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?lid=sidenav All three links link to the same landing page, with an extra parameter. Using email or campaign tagging: www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/ www.domainname.com./category/sub-category/?utm_source=launch&utm_medium=email&utm_term=html&utm_content=getscoop&utm_campaign=hwdyrwm2012 With that we create many tagged links based on the campaign internal strategy. How do these effect indexing, and link juice? How do thy effect SEO in general?
Reporting & Analytics | | RAPPLA0 -
Does Google Analytics use your data against you?
I couldn't find this question answered anywhere in Q&A, so I apologize if it's a duplicate of another post. I heard, about a year ago on either Web Pro World, or Warrior Forum that Google uses your visitor data in your Google Analytic account to rank your site. Someone said that when they took out the Google code, their site went from the third to the first page within 48 hours. That was then verified over the next couple of weeks by others. Their thought was that regardless of the optimized page and incoming link, if the site wasn't getting visitors, then it would be penalized. Since Google has the data, they would be able to use it. I then started using another, paid, solution - getclicky.com. While I like clicky, there is some info Google has that clicky doesn't, everyone integrates with Google analytics - like SEOmoz, and I'm paying a monthly fee. Now that I'm a part of a community of experts, what do you think? Have you noticed Google ranking you based on your analytics data? Has anyone experienced this, or heard about it before? Because I'd like to go back to using Google analytics. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | DallasBonsai0 -
What are your top 5 Analytics Reports?
What are for you the 5 most important reports into Google Analytics? Thank you for yours answers guys, Jonathan Leplang
Reporting & Analytics | | JonathanLeplang0