Google Analytics Bug Inaccurately Shows Big SEO Losses

[OldFaces]

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System: The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4974557.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 5:50 pm on Dec 17, 2019 (utc -5)

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Hey G finally updated officially re: the inaccurate numbers:
[google.com...]

We're investigating reports of an issue with Google Analytics. We will provide more information shortly.


Google Analytics may show incorrect data for 2019-12-16.


Mod's note: Above link breaks in WebmasterWorld redirect script. Copy and paste this unlinked url into address bar to see selected items and display data....
https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=issue&sid=18&iid=ee0c031909bd430a733bb33b69ba8350

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 11:00 am (utc) on Dec 26, 2019]
[edit reason] Posting url to copy into address bar [/edit]

[Tech4]

In GA I selected Audience > Overview and switch to show visits "Hourly". I saw a severe visitors flow drop between 16-00 and 20-00 December, 16. If select December 1 to 17 and show graph by hour it may turn obvious that you have never had such little visitors per hour (taking into account all daily and weekly visits fluctuations)

[jmorgan]

Good thing I didn't check my GA recently. I hate nasty surprises, especially "fake analytics news". LOL

[Athedian]

Yesterday was showing 1 day active users at -77%, I died inside. Although I would think it's definitely GA messing up, but the traffic was...

[tangor]

Whew! Sounds like I dodged a heart attack! (After a few years of micromanaging GA and that biz I moved on to something else). But I CAN IMAGINE how something like described could make coffee go down the wrong way, hair stand on end, and occupied desk chairs toppling horizontal!

[samwest]

While I do see the bug...or rather the service outage...I also see what appears as 'false' visits in GA. I compare traffic using both Matomo and GA...and the numbers don't always match up. Why would we be seeing fake traffic? You would think a service outage would show less. Fubar again.

[glakes]

The big takeaway from this bug, for me at least, underscores the need for webmasters to not solely rely on GA. Simply comparing GA stats to server logs would have immediately pointed to a reporting error in GA.

[blend27]

--- for webmasters to not solely rely on GA ---

Most of the Peaches -- came from GA. Peaches come from a Can, they were put there by a Man.

100% True -- your site logs is what you got.

[jmorgan]

@glakes I agree, but sites with very high traffic (including from bots and whatnot) may/will slow their server down in any software analyzing their heavy and large logs.

Easier just to let GA handle it at the cost of some inaccuracy and outages. And at least GA will only process visits capable of JS (which will eliminate the vast majority of bots).

[GanapathyR]

Yes. It is just a Google Analytics report issue. But, Real-time seems to be reporting perfect.

[OldFaces]

All I got to say is that this 'data anomalies' on 12/15 change in Search Console [support.google.com...] plus the 12/16 Google Analytics bug [google.com...] which is still not fixed for us btw = very unhelpful and unreliable data from G this month.

[SweetPotato]

I still got missing data from 12/16.

[cnvi]

Can't trust GA and haven't since 2015. I know we can't endorse other products here so I won't but just Bing "alternatives to Google Analytics" and you will find easy to use very accurate solutions.. some cost a few $ a month but its worth it.

It's my opinion GA intentionally does this in order to manipulate its least technically minded users into buying G paid placement.

[EditorialGuy]

The big takeaway from this bug, for me at least, underscores the need for webmasters to not solely rely on GA.

For me, the big takeaway is "Don't be obsessive about watching traffic from hour to hour (or even day to day)." Also, if it looks broken, it probably is.

[NickMNS]

@cnvi, I have heard the same thing about the GA manipulations. But don't forget that those that don't use GA are penalized in SERPS as the big G can't get the data they need to throttle traffic to be sure that these sites don't negatively impact their ad revenue. So really, you can't win.

[cnvi]

@nickMNS: Exactly.. so we use GA because "we have to"... and you are right we cannot win this game until the US govt intervenes, or an entity willing to go against G wins the hearts of the average uneducated internet user. That is not likely to happen in our lifetime given their close to 50 billion a quarter in revenue.

[bwnbwn]

BS on penalized if you don't use GA that is nonsense.
Can you imagine the class action if this was remotely true.
GA does give G all your data to eventually steal ya customers through targeted sds

[christianz]

You don't know if its nonsense or fact. There is at least 50/50 probability that Google does demote (if only slightly) sites that don't use their spyware. It would only make sense if they did.

[OldFaces]

FWIW I checked today and our 12/16/19 data finally updated :P

[jediviper]

Yeap, good news that everything was restored.

[Robert Charlton]

Here's a copy of the currently displayed Google Anayltics error report, in case it changes over time. See OP regarding link problem....

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12/17/19, 4:36 PM

The problem with Google Analytics should be resolved for the vast majority of affected users. We will continue to work towards restoring service for the remaining affected users, but no further updates will be provided on the G Suite Status Dashboard. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.

We have revised our estimated reprocessing timelines for Dec 16-17 data to be ~2 weeks for 360 accounts and ~3 weeks for standard accounts. Please keep in mind we do strive to address this matter as soon as possible.

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12/17/19, 3:28 PM

We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 12/17/19, 4:28 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.

Google Analytics may show incorrect data between 09:00 and 23:00 US/Pacific on 2019-12-16. We intend to backfill the correct data and will provide an estimated completion time with the next update.

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12/16/19, 3:22 PM

We're investigating reports of an issue with Google Analytics. We will provide more information shortly.

Google Analytics may show incorrect data for 2019-12-16.