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• Is Google Analytics Accurate ? 6 Important Caveats

  8 novembre 2022, par Erin

  It’s no secret that accurate website analytics is crucial for growing your online business — and Google Analytics is often the go-to source for insights. 

  But is Google Analytics data accurate ? Can you fully trust the provided numbers ? Here’s a detailed explainer.

  How Accurate is Google Analytics ? A Data-Backed Answer 

  When properly configured, Google Analytics (Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4) is moderately accurate for global traffic collection. That said : Google Analytics doesn’t accurately report European traffic. 

  According to GDPR provisions, sites using GA products must display a cookie consent banner. This consent is required to collect third-party cookies — a tracking mechanism for identifying users across web properties.

  Google Analytics (GA) cannot process data about the user’s visit if they rejected cookies. In such cases, your analytics reports will be incomplete.

  Cookie rejection refers to visitors declining or blocking cookies from ever being collected by a specific website (or within their browser). It immediately affects the accuracy of all metrics in Google Analytics.

  Google Analytics is not accurate in locations where cookie consent to tracking is legally required. Most consumers don’t like disruptive cookie banners or harbour concerns about their privacy — and chose to reject tracking. 

  This leaves businesses with incomplete data, which, in turn, results in : 

  • Lower traffic counts as you’re not collecting 100% of the visitor data. 
  • Loss of website optimisation capabilities. You can’t make data-backed decisions due to inconsistent reporting

  For the above reasons, many companies now consider cookieless website tracking apps that don’t require consent screen displays. 

  Why is Google Analytics Not Accurate ? 6 Causes and Solutions 

  A high rejection rate of cookie banners is the main reason for inaccurate Google Analytics reporting. In addition, your account settings can also hinder Google Analytics’ accuracy.

  If your analytics data looks wonky, check for these six Google Analytics accuracy problems. 

  You Need to Secure Consent to Cookies Collection 

  To be GDPR-compliant, you must display a cookie consent screen to all European users. Likewise, other jurisdictions and industries require similar measures for user data collection. 

  This is a nuisance for many businesses since cookie rejection undermines their remarketing capabilities. Hence, some try to maximise cookie acceptance rates with dark patterns. For example : hide the option to decline tracking or make the texts too small. 

  

  Sadly, not everyone’s treating users with respect. A joint study by German and American researchers found that only 11% of US websites (from a sample of 5,000+) use GDPR-compliant cookie banners.

  As a result, many users aren’t aware of the background data collection to which they have (or have not) given consent. Another analysis of 200,000 cookies discovered that 70% of third-party marketing cookies transfer user data outside of the EU — a practice in breach of GDPR.

  Naturally, data regulators and activities are after this issue. In April 2022, Google was pressured to introduce a ‘reject all’ cookies button to all of its products (a €150 million compliance fine likely helped with that). Whereas, noyb has lodged over 220 complaints against individual websites with deceptive cookie consent banners.

  The takeaway ? Messing up with the cookie consent mechanism can get you in legal trouble. Don’t use sneaky banners as there are better ways to collect website traffic statistics. 

  Solution : Try Matomo GDPR-Friendly Analytics 

  Fill in the gaps in your traffic analytics with Matomo – a fully GDPR-compliant product that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies for tracking web visitors. Because of how it is designed, the French data protection authority (CNIL) confirmed that Matomo can be used to collect data without tracking consent.

  With Matomo, you can track website users without asking for cookie consent. And when you do, we supply you with a compact, compliant, non-disruptive cookie banner design. 

  Your Google Tag Isn’t Embedded Correctly 

  Google Tag (gtag.js) is a web tracking script that sends data to your Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform.

  A corrupted gtag.js installation can create two accuracy issues : 

  • Duplicate page tracking 
  • Missing script installation 

  Is there a way to tell if you’re affected ?

  Yes. You may have duplicate scripts installed if you have a very low bounce rate on most website pages (below 15% – 20%). The above can happen if you’re using a WordPress GA plugin and additionally embed gtag.js straight in your website code. 

  A tell-tale sign of a missing script on some pages is low/no traffic stats. Google alerts you about this with a banner : 

  

  Solution : Use Available Troubleshooting Tools 

  Use Google Analytics Debugger extension to analyse pages with low bounce rates. Use the search bar to locate duplicate code-tracking elements. 

  Alternatively, you can use Google Tag Assistant for diagnosing snippet install and troubleshooting issues on individual pages. 

  If the above didn’t work, re-install your analytics script. 

  Machine Learning and Blended Data Are Applied

  Google Analytics 4 (GA4) relies a lot on machine learning and algorithmic predictions.

  By applying Google’s advanced machine learning models, the new Analytics can automatically alert you to significant trends in your data. [...] For example, it calculates churn probability so you can more efficiently invest in retaining customers.

  Vidhya Srinivasan, VP of Measurement, Analytics and Buying Platforms at Google

  On the surface, the above sounds exciting. In practice, Google’s application of predictive algorithms means you’re not seeing actual data. 

  To offer a variation of cookieless tracking, Google algorithms close the gaps in reporting by creating models (i.e., data-backed predictions) instead of reporting on actual user behaviours. Therefore, your GA4 numbers may not be accurate.

  For bigger web properties (think websites with 1+ million users), Google also relies on data sampling — a practice of extrapolating data analytics, based on a data subset, rather than the entire dataset. Once again, this can lead to inconsistencies in reporting with some numbers (e.g., average conversion rates) being inflated or downplayed. 

  Solution : Try an Alternative Website Analytics App 

  Unlike GA4, Matomo reports consist of 100% unsampled data. All the aggregated reporting you see is based on real user data (not guesstimation). 

  Moreover, you can migrate from Universal Analytics (UA) to Matomo without losing access to your historical records. GA4 doesn’t yet have any backward compatibility.

  Spam and Bot Traffic Isn’t Filtered Out 

  Surprise ! 42% of all Internet traffic is generated by bots, of which 27.7% are bad ones.

  Good bots (aka crawlers) do essential web “housekeeping” tasks like indexing web pages. Bad bots distribute malware, spam contact forms, hack user accounts and do other nasty stuff. 

  A lot of such spam bots are designed specifically for web analytics apps. The goal ? Flood your dashboard with bogus data in hopes of getting some return action from your side. 

  Types of Google Analytics Spam :

  • Referral spam. Spambots hijack the referrer, displayed in your GA referral traffic report to indicate a page visit from some random website (which didn’t actually occur). 
  • Event spam. Bots generate fake events with free language entries enticing you to visit their website. 
  • Ghost traffic spam. Malicious parties can also inject fake pageviews, containing URLs that they want you to click. 

  Obviously, such spammy entities distort the real website analytics numbers. 

  Solution : Set Up Bot/Spam Filters 

  Google Analytics 4 has automatic filtering of bot traffic enabled for all tracked Web and App properties. 

  But if you’re using Universal Analytics, you’ll have to manually configure spam filtering. First, create a new view and then set up a custom filter. Program it to exclude :

  • Filter Field : Request URI
  • Filter Pattern : Bot traffic URL

  Once you’ve configured everything, validate the results using Verify this filter feature. Then repeat the process for other fishy URLs, hostnames and IP addresses. 

  You Don’t Filter Internal Traffic 

  Your team(s) spend a lot of time on your website — and their sporadic behaviours can impair your traffic counts and other website metrics.

  To keep your data “employee-free”, exclude traffic from : 

  • Your corporate IPs addresses 
  • Known personal IPs of employees (for remote workers) 

  If you also have a separate stage version of your website, you should also filter out all traffic coming from it. Your developers, contractors and marketing people spend a lot of time fiddling with your website. This can cause a big discrepancy in average time on page and engagement rates. 

  Solution : Set Internal Traffic Filters 

  Google provides instructions for excluding internal traffic from your reports using IPv4/IPv6 address filters. 

  

  Session Timeouts After 30 Minutes 

  After 30 minutes of inactivity, Google Analytics tracking sessions start over. Inactivity means no recorded interaction hits during this time. 

  Session timeouts can be a problem for some websites as users often pin a tab to check it back later. Because of this, you can count the same user twice or more — and this leads to skewed reporting. 

  Solution : Programme Custom Timeout Sessions

  You can codify custom cookie timeout sessions with the following code snippets : 

  • _setSessionCookieTimeout. Set a custom new session cookie timeout in milliseconds.
  • _setVisitorCookieTimeout. Sets a custom Google Analytics visitor cookie expiration time frame in milliseconds.

  Final Thoughts 

  Thanks to its scale and longevity, Google Analytics has some strong sides, but its data accuracy isn’t 100% perfect.

  The inability to capture analytics data from users who don’t consent to cookie tracking and data sampling applied to bigger web properties may be a deal-breaker for your business. 

  If that’s the case, try Matomo — a GDPR-compliant, accurate web analytics solution. Start your 21-day free trial now. No credit card required.

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  Your email address
  

  Your website address
  

  Your Analytics subdomain will be .matomo.cloud (change)

  Choose your analytics subdomain
  

  .matomo.cloud

  I hereby accept the terms and conditions and the data processing agreement (DPA)

  
  Your information will be used to create an account on our cloud service. For more information please consult our privacy policy.
  
  

  » Start improving your websites now

  

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) vs Matomo

  7 avril 2022, par Erin

  Google announced that Universal Analytics’ days are numbered. Universal Analytics will be replaced by Google Analytics 4 (or GA4) on the 1st of July 2023. 

  If Google Analytics users want to compare year-on-year data, they have until July 2022 to get set up and start collecting data before the sun sets on Universal Analytics (or UA).

  But is upgrading to Google Analytics 4 the right move ? There’s a lot to consider, and many organisations are looking for an alternative to Google Analytics. So in this blog, we’ll compare GA4 to Matomo – the leading Google Analytics alternative. 

  In this blog, we’ll look at :

  What is Matomo ?

  Matomo is a powerful privacy-first web analytics platform that gives you 100% data ownership. First launched in 2007, Matomo is now the world’s leading open-source web analytics platform and is used by more than 1 million websites. 

  Matomo’s core values are based on ethical data collection and processing. Consistently more businesses and organisations from around the globe are adopting data-privacy-compliant web analytics solutions like Matomo. 

  Matomo offers both Cloud and On-Premise solutions (and a five-star rated WordPress plugin), making for an adaptable and flexible solution. 

  What is Google Analytics 4 ?

  Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google Analytics and represents a completely new approach to data-modelling than its predecessor, Universal Analytics. For an in-depth look at how GA4 and UA compare, check out this Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics comparison. 

  Google Analytics 4 will soon be the only available version of analytics software from Google. So what’s the issue ? Surely, in 2022, Google makes it easy to migrate to their newest (and only) analytics platform ? Not quite.

  Google Analytics 4 vs Matomo

  Whilst the core purpose of GA4 and Matomo is similar (providing web analytics that help to optimise your website and grow your business), there are several key differences that organisations should consider before making the switch.

  Importing Historical Data from Universal Analytics

  Google Analytics 4

  Users assuming that historical data from Universal Analytics could be imported into Google Analytics 4 were faced with swift disappointment. Unfortunately, Google Analytics 4 does not have an option to import data from its predecessor, Universal Analytics. This means that businesses won’t be able to import and compare data from previous years.

  Matomo

  If you don’t want to start from scratch with your web analytics data, then Matomo is an ideal solution for data continuity. Matomo offers users the ability to import their historical Universal Analytics data. So you can keep all that valuable historical data you’ve collected over the years.

  

  User Interface

  Google Analytics 4

  GA4’s new user interface has been met with mixed reviews. Many claim that it’s overly complex and difficult to navigate. Some have even suggested that the tool has been designed specifically for enterprises with specialised analytics teams. 

  

  Matomo

  Matomo, on the other hand, is recognised for an easy to use interface, with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars for ease of use on Capterra. Matomo perfectly balances powerful features with a user-friendly interface so valuable insights are only a click away. There’s a reason why over 1 million websites are using Matomo. 

  

  Advanced Behavioural Analytics Features 

  Google Analytics 4

  While Google Analytics is undoubtedly robust in some areas (machine learning, for instance), what it really lacks is advanced behavioural analytics. Heatmaps, session recordings and other advanced tools can give you valuable insights into how users are engaging with your site. Well beyond pageviews and other metrics.

  Unfortunately, with this new generation of GA, Google still hasn’t introduced these features. So users have to manage subscriptions and tracking in third-party behavioural analytics tools like Hotjar or Lucky Orange, for example. This is inefficient, costly and time-consuming to manage. 

  

  Matomo 

  Meanwhile, Matomo is a one-stop shop for all of your web analytics needs. Not only do you get access to the metrics you’ve grown accustomed to with Universal Analytics, but you also get built-in behavioural analytics features like Heatmaps, Scroll Depth, Session Recordings and more. 

  Want to know if visitors are reaching your call to action at the bottom of the page ? Scroll Depth will answer that.

  Want to know why visitors aren’t clicking through to the next page ? Heatmaps will give you the insights you need.

  You get the picture – the full picture, that is. 

  

  Data Accuracy

  Google Analytics 4

  GA4 aims to make web and app analytics more privacy-centric by reducing the reliance on cookies to record certain events across platforms and devices. 

  However, when site and application visitors opt-out of cookie tracking, GA4 instead relies on machine learning to fill in the gaps. Data sampling could mean that your business is making business decisions based on inaccurate reports. 

  Matomo

  Data is the backbone of web analytics, so why make critical business decisions on sampled data ? With Matomo, you’re guaranteed 100% unsampled accurate data. So you can rest assured that any decisions you make are based on actual facts. 

  Compliance with Privacy Laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) 

  Google Analytics 4

  Google is making changes in an attempt to become compliant with privacy laws. However, even with GA4, users are still transferring data to the US. For this reason, both Austrian and French governments have ruled Google Analytics illegal under GDPR.

  The only possible workaround is “Privacy Shield 2.0”, but GDPR experts are still sceptical of this one. 

  Matomo

  If compliance with global privacy laws is a concern (and it should be), then Matomo is the clear winner here. 

  As an EU hosted web analytics tool, your data is stored in Europe, and no data is transferred to the US. On the other hand, if you choose to self-host, the data is stored in your country of choice.

  In addition, with cookieless tracking enabled, you can say goodbye to those pesky cookie consent screens. 

  Also, remember that under GDPR, and many other data privacy laws like CCPA and LGPD, end users have a legal right to access, amend and/or erase the personal data collected about them. 

  With Matomo you get 100% ownership of your web analytics data. This means that we don’t on-sell to third parties ; can’t claim ownership of the data ; and you can export your data at any time.

  

  Wrap up

  At the end of the day, the worst thing an organisation can do is nothing. Waiting until July 2023 to migrate to GA4 or another web analytics platform would be very disruptive and costly. Organisations need to consider their options now and start migrating in the next few months. 

  With all that said, moving to Google Analytics 4 could prove to be a costly and time-consuming operation. The global trend towards increased data privacy is a threat to platforms like Google Analytics which uses data for advertising and transfers data across borders.

  With Matomo, you get an easy to use all-in-one web analytics platform and keep your historical Universal Analytics data. Plus, you can future-proof your business by being compliant with global privacy laws and get access to advanced behavioural analytics features. 

  There’s a lot to weigh up here but fortunately, getting started with Matomo is easy. Try it free for 21-days (no credit card required) and see for yourself why over 1 million websites choose Matomo. 

  While this is the end of the road for Universal Analytics, it’s also an opportune time for organisations to find a better fit web analytics tool. 

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  Your email address
  

  Your website address
  

  Your Analytics subdomain will be .matomo.cloud (change)

  Choose your analytics subdomain
  

  .matomo.cloud

  I hereby accept the terms and conditions and the data processing agreeement (DPA).

  
  Your information will be used to create an account on our cloud service. For more information please consult our privacy policy.
  
  

  » Start improving your websites now

  

• Revision 34808 : class url pour le lien et non org (site VS société, merci tetue)

  31 janvier 2010, par brunobergot@… — Log

  class url pour le lien et non org (site VS société, merci tetue)