There is no doubt that Google Analytics is an invaluable tool for online businesses. It helps track visitor engagement and conversion data, giving businesses a clear idea of how their website is performing. But what many people don't realize is that, despite its immense usefulness, there are still a few data lies that Google Analytics is telling you. Here are 8 data lies Google Analytics is telling you, and how to get around them.
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Not tracking 100% of the traffic. Google Analytics is not always capable of tracking 100% of the website’s traffic, especially if the user’s browser has JavaScript or Cookies disabled. To get around this, businesses should look into alternative analytics tracking solutions that don’t rely on JavaScript and Cookies, such as tracking pixels or log files.
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Inaccurate referrals. With referral data, Google Analytics is not able to distinguish between a meaningful referral and a bogus one. To combat this, businesses should be sure to keep track of referral sources from their own logs and use the data to override Google Analytics’ referral data.
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Omitted events. Events such as downloads, video plays, scrolling, etc. are often not tracked in Google Analytics. To close this gap, businesses need to set up event tracking themselves and ensure that these types of events are being properly tracked.
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Attributing search engine traffic to Google. By default, Google Analytics does not differentiate between other search engines, such as Bing and Yahoo, when reporting which search engine is driving the traffic. To better-understand which search engine is bringing in the most traffic, businesses need to set up separate UTM parameters for each search engine.
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Misleading bounce rate. The bounce rate in Google Analytics is not always reflective of the actual engagement on a page. Just because someone visits one page on your site and leaves immediately, it doesn’t mean they aren’t fascinated by your content. To get a better insight into page engagement, businesses should monitor session duration and time-on-page.
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TCP/IP addresses are not tracked. With IP addresses, Google Analytics is not able to accurately differentiate between a single user and two separate users coming from the same IP address. To detect which users are coming from the same IP address, businesses should look into a third-party tracking tool.
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Wrong geolocation data. Google Analytics tries to accurately attribute a users’ location using their browser settings, but this can often be inaccurate. To get a more accurate picture of a user’s location, it’s important to look at a user’s IP address.
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Ignores mobile browsers. The default Google Analytics tracking code is not always optimized for mobile devices. To get an accurate picture of mobile users, businesses need to make sure that they’re using the right tracking code.
Google Analytics can provide businesses with an immense wealth of data, but the data that it provides can be flawed. To get a better, more accurate understanding of their user engagement, businesses need to look beyond the data that Google Analytics is providing and make use of alternative tracking solutions and custom UTM parameters.