Google Analytics accuracy
Google Analytics is a widely used web analytics service provided by Google. Google designs it to track and report website traffic and provide insights into user behavior and engagement. While people consider Google Analytics a reliable tool, it is critical to understand its limitations and potential sources of inaccuracy. Several factors can affect the accuracy of Google Analytics data.
1. Data Collection Limitations
Google Analytics relies on JavaScript code placed on web pages to collect data. If a user has JavaScript disabled or the tracking code fails to load correctly, the data may be incomplete or inaccurate. However, this is becoming less of an issue as most users have JavaScript enabled by default.
2. Sampling
In cases of a large volume of data, Google Analytics may use sampling to provide aggregated reports. It involves analyzing a subset of data instead of the entire dataset, which can introduce an inaccuracy. However, Google Analytics gives options to adjust the sampling rate or use premium features to reduce sampling.
3. Ad Blockers
Some users employ ad-blocking browser extensions or tools that can prevent the Google Analytics tracking code from executing. It can lead to underreporting of website traffic and inaccurate data.
4. Data Quality
Google Analytics relies on the accurate implementation of its tracking code on websites. If the code is implemented incorrectly or modified by mistake, it can result in data discrepancies or incorrect tracking.
5. Cross-Device Tracking
Google Analytics uses cookies to track user interactions on a website. However, cookies are device-specific, which means that if a user switches devices or clears their cookies, it can impact the accuracy of tracking user behavior across multiple devices.
6. JavaScript disabled
Google Analytics relies on JavaScript to track user interactions. If a user has JavaScript disabled in their browser, you cannot follow their activity using Google Analytics since it depends on the mercy of users who disable their Javascript.
Conclusion
Despite these limitations, most businesses consider Google Analytics to provide valuable and accurate insights when properly implemented and understood. They widely used it of all sizes to make data-driven decisions and optimize website performance. Therefore, they must validate the data to ensure its accuracy and address potential issues.
Relating stories:
Best Ways To Increase Your Website Traffic
Pixabay
Increased traffic leads to increased sales. It’s a no-brainer in business. To increase your website sales, you first must work to ensure as many people are visiting your website as possible.
If you’re one of the many business owners who has spent countless hours perfecting their website only to find that no-one is visiting, you aren’t alone. You’ve come to the right place to get advice for driving people to your website as organically as possible.
Best practices to decide on backlinks for your blog post or blog homepage
Should backlinks be for your blog post or blog homepage? Backlinks are crucial for both your blog post and homepage. However, the type and quantity of backlinks may vary depending on your specific goals for each. If you want to drive traffic to a blog post, it’s a good idea to focus on building backlinks that point directly to that post. On the other hand, if you want to improve the authority and visibility of your blog, it’s important to build backlinks to your homepage as well.
Five reasons why your new blog lose traffic after Google updates
It’s not because Google hates you or your blog. There is nothing personal here. Read on these five reasons below.
Algorithm changes Google updates its algorithm regularly, which affects your search engine rankings. If your blog post ranked highly for a particular keyword, and then the algorithm changes, it may no longer rank as highly, leading to a drop in traffic.
It’s possible the new algorithm put the domain age into the calculation.
Google's featured snippets are not always accurate
What is featured snippet A featured snippet is a summary of a search result that is displayed on top of the search results page. It is meant to give the searcher a quick overview of the information they are looking for.
What I see on featured snippets As you can see above, I put this keyword on Google search box: is twiends trustworthy. Then, it gives that answer:
One of the things that they promise is organic growth, so you don’t have to worry about bots or fake engagement.
Low-Hanging Fruit: Easy Ways To Improve A Website
(Image Credit)
Making the best website for your business is never an easy task. While there are plenty of resources out there that can help you with this, most people simply don’t have the experience to take something like this on. This leaves a lot of companies to deal with websites that simply don’t meet their standards. To help you out with this, this article will be exploring four of the easiest ways to improve your website, focusing on keeping spending to a minimum.
How I solve weird CLS issue: more than 0.25
If you don’t know, CLS is one of the main factors in SE now. It stands for Cumulative Layout Shift. Google on web.dev has explained it in detail. But, even following all the guidelines, the CLS score is still nearly 1.
How I solve this weird CLS problem? Let’s inspect them one by one.
Images without dimensions The page has no images. So, this doesn’t apply at all. I have checked the Network tab on the Chrome dev console.
Things that forced me to leave GA for AWStats
Starting on this first day of August, I decided to remove Google Analytics (GA). Ever since I migrate this blog to a new host that gives me AWStats on the cPanel, it looks like there are more and more things that make sense to leave GA for AWStats.
Ad-block usage According to Statista.com, the Ad-blocking user penetration in the United States is 25.8% on this 2019. This is expecting to raise in the upcoming years.
The quest for better and more valuable SEO plugins
I write this for commoners who often get overwhelmed and even confused. There are just too many good and bad tech reviews for a product or service they will use. (or even buy!) Here’s the story with an example of a real case: my quest for better and more valuable SEO plugins
Beginning This begins with a discussion on one of the largest forums on the internet.
Someone asked for suggestions between the two SEO plugins for WordPress.
Fix “All values provided for URL must point to the same page”
How to Fix “All values provided for URL must point to the same page”? Is it really Google SDTT bug? I don’t think so. Read on.
Background Let’s start with the background how did I stumble upon that issue.
This begins with one of the tasks on the on-going project I am working on.
The task asked me to implement Google’s structure data so the site will be eligible for a list-like display called a carousel (doc: https://developers.
How I reduce CSS size under 50KB for AMP
Here’s how I reduce CSS size under 50KB for AMP. It’s mandatory requirement from Google AMP. The short answer: remove the unused CSS codes for the page you’re going to convert to AMP.
Long answer:
Easier said than done, especially when the webpage you’re going to convert to AMP had very large CSS codes.
Read on my own story below . . .
I am getting more and more requests to build AMP pages from existing pages.
How to unlock not provided keywords in google analytics
If your site happened to have Google Analytics installed, then you must have noticed that **(not provided) ** keywords on the table for “Organic Search” traffic source. So, how to unlock not provided keywords in google analytics?
Because it’s true that there are many ways to unlock it.
But most of them are complicated, even for developers.
Not to mention that most are failed or not working anymore.
Others are just the way too complicated, in my opinion, it’s even not worth the hurdles unless your “Organic Traffic” percentage is huge.
How to use ranktank google sheets real-time keyword tool
If you have not heard or known about this free and simple keyword tool, you should check this Rank tank tool. But you may overlook the easy way to use it. If so, here’s how to use ranktank Google sheets real-time keyword tool.
I’ll give you the link at the end of the article.
First, let me tell you the story how I stumbled upon this free and real-time tool ( which is very rare because even Google Search Console tool is not real time, at least at the time I wrote this ).
Should I install Google Analytics?
I admit it that on every web development project I’ve worked since 2010, Google analytics is always there. Should I install Google Analytics? Or should I not? Let’s see.
Either it’s installed through a WordPress plugin, or was called from a shared partial file (for Rails app), or even just hardcoded on the HTML file, it’s always there.
Sometimes, I wonder… is it that important for all the sites? Should I install Google analytics for all of the sites I am working on?
Why AMP is important?
If you think patience is a virtue, try surfing the net without high-speed internet. Here’s why AMP is important and why it will get more important in the future?
That’s the moment your patience jumps through the window, but thanks to AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) loading pages and sites over the internet speed is increasing day in day out.
That’s for us who search for information over the internet what about you who puts the information on the internet, be a blogger or site owner?