Comments on: Has Google Analytics Gone Bad?

By: Dustin

Dustin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:32:04 +0000

Donna: Accidentally removing the GA tracking code would definitely cause such a problem!

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:39:48 +0000

I found your blog when searching “google analytics shows a drop in keyword search” because I’ve been trying to figure out what has happened to my site that totally freake me out this past week. I have been raking pretty steady and in Google’s top 10 for over 2 years for a few select money making keywords. One day I did a check and I had fallen to page 6 for two of them, and even further down for a few more. I had been updating my site with a new logo so for a couple of weeks I had been working steady on it. My first thought was I must had messed something up and didn’t realize it. In looking at my G-analytics account I could see that for certain keywords the search for all of them happened around June 19-21. This was about the time I started uploading changed pages on my site. However I didn’t see the big bottoming out until July7th. All the top keywords in G-analytics showed the same thing a big decline (and I dont’ mean just a swoop down I’m talking about a straight line to the bottom and then flat line…like I had died for two weeks).
I’ve been frantically trying to retrace my steps ..and tonight in looking at my GA account I couldn’t help but think it has something specific that happened during those 3 days.

Tonight I just happen to compare my home page (which has been updated) to an internal page that has not been updated and is ranking very high. After reading the above post in you blog..and checking to see which code I’m using ..the old or new… I realized my updated pages don’t have ANY analytics code in them. But my older pages do! And, my older pages are still ranking ok.

I think I must have accidentally removed the GA tracking code completely…so I’m fixing to go put it back right now and I’ll come back and update here to let you know if it had an impact.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:16:11 +0000

Upgraded GA code has not changed anything for me in the 24 hours since. still not getting ANY google traffic and my page rank of 3 is just puzzling me. how can i still be a 3 and not be getting ANY google traffic. is google punishing me for something?

By: Dustin

Dustin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:48:02 +0000

Erno and Andrew: The upgraded code solved the problem for me! My traffic according to GA has been back to normal levels ever since the change!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:32:38 +0000

I noticed something similar happening on my site and it’s freaking me out.

Organic traffic from Google was about 70% of my total traffic up until late May. Since then it is more like 30% and it is actually DROPPING.

My Page rank has remained unchanged. Was 3/10 and still is 3/10.

Now, I did go on vacation around that time and stopped posting for about 3 weeks, so that could have something to do with it, but I only ever post about once a week anyway so I wouldn’t think a 3 week hiatus would result in a drop like that.

In my case it seemed to fall off the cliff around the last couple days of May.

Consistent across Google Analytics and Sitemeter.

I guess I’ll try upgrading to the latest GA code first and see what happens.

By: Erno Hannink

Erno Hannink — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:01:11 +0000

I see a similar drop from May 24. Normally 300 visitors daily sice then reduced to 50. Next to GA I also use GetClicky, here business as usual. So it must be something in GA.

By: Dustin

Dustin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:48:48 +0000

Interestingly, the search engine traffic that GA recognizes is WAY up today over the past few weeks. I only started using the new script code at 10am and despite the fact that it’s not yet 8pm, the total search traffic for the day is almost double the usual search engine traffic.

I’ll give it another day to confirm things, but I think the problem has been solved and that the old tracking code was missing lots of search traffic.

By: The Tim

The Tim — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:02:00 +0000

You got me curious, so I poked around in my Google Analytics stats for a while and was unable to see anything similar.

On the other hand, I poked around in your Quantcast statistics a little bit as well, and found some charts that seem to indicate a fairly similar trend to what Analytics is showing.

They’re showing a decline 5/15-5/31, followed by something of a leveling off since then. I am inclined to think that the issue has something to do with your Google ranking, perhaps on some search terms other than the obvious ones that come to mind?

My $0.02.

By: NoelVeiga

NoelVeiga — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:34:07 +0000

I noticed something around the same dates, too, also a traffic drop, though I couldn’t point it to search engine traffic for sure (we’re just starting and we don’t get enough traffic to detect that kind of pattern yet). We do pop up as a first result with relevant terms on Yahoo, though, but not Google. I’ve noticed some traffic coming from google recently, but the formerly usual Yahoo referrals have all but evaporated.

We’ve always been using the newer script and we haven’t made any other changes. I thought it was just a drop due to actual content, but hearing a similar story makes me wonder about the accuracy of the tool itself. I’m only using that and a server-side Webalizer account, but maybe I should install additional trackers in light of this issue…

By: sakarya

sakarya — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:41:30 +0000

thanks..