
Google Analytics is lying to you - dredmorbius
https://www.tallprojects.co.uk/articles/google-analytics-is-lying-to-you/
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clintonc
Disclaimer: I work at Google, but not in Analytics.

I'm not sure that the comparisons here are apple-to-apple. The first graph
compares "visits counted in WP Engine Blogs" versus "Sessions counted by
Google Analytics". How does WP Engine Logs count visits? Analytics uses a
specific deduplication scheme for sessions -- e.g., a user visiting twice
within 30 minutes only counts as one session.

There are ways to explain how visits would show in logs but not in analytics,
but I find it difficult to believe that 2/3 of these blog visitors are using a
tool that blocks requests to Analytics.

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ID1452319
I agree. The article skims over the consistencies in the way data is recorded
in the two tools. My experience is that Google Analytics is much more
sophisticated, whereas tools which query server logs are more "as is".

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mharroun
I dont know what processing wp is doing to track "real" visitors via logs. But
I have rolled my own analitics and I had the same discrepancy as the article
from GA when using server side visitor tracking. Once I started to only track
visitors who actually rendered and loaded our javascript it was only 1 to 3
percent discrepancy. My guess is the logs are picking up way more bots that
dont load javascript.

