Question about Analytics vs. Concrete5 Statistics
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I have a huge discretion between what C5 is saying I have for hits and what Google Analytics says...
C5 says I have 68914 visits since I first launched the site a year and half ago.
Last April I connected Google Analytics so I could get a better report on where the hits are coming from and what search engines are picking up.
Since April of 2010, Google Analytics says we've only had 813 visits.
My understanding of how C5 pulls it's reports is by pageviews...in which case Analytics says we have 2,178, which is still a huge difference.
I'm wondering which report is more accurate, and why there's such a huge gap between the 2.
C5 says I have 68914 visits since I first launched the site a year and half ago.
Last April I connected Google Analytics so I could get a better report on where the hits are coming from and what search engines are picking up.
Since April of 2010, Google Analytics says we've only had 813 visits.
My understanding of how C5 pulls it's reports is by pageviews...in which case Analytics says we have 2,178, which is still a huge difference.
I'm wondering which report is more accurate, and why there's such a huge gap between the 2.
If I had to guess I would say your site has been infested with bots. I manage a very small site that about a year ago started exceeding its bandwidth quota regularly. It turned out it was getting nearly a thousand hits from bots a week. The real traffic was a small fraction of that.
Concrete5's built in stats system currently sucks,
it literally counts every page page view,
editing a page adds atleast 3 hits,
it literally counts every page page view,
editing a page adds atleast 3 hits,
Few things jump to mind:
concrete5 is tracking literal page views. So every time you put a page in and out of edit mode that's actually 3 views. Etc.
concrete5 treats your entire dashboard as pages too.
and like todd said, google ignores bots.
Generally stats like this are annoyingly slippery so the best option is to just treat google as the standard that everyone is playing on. I know it's annoying, but that's kinda how I do it. If i'm talking to a business person in SFO about concrete5's growth I can drop that we had a million page views last month according to google analytics and they can believe what I'm saying, because its google analytics.
concrete5 is tracking literal page views. So every time you put a page in and out of edit mode that's actually 3 views. Etc.
concrete5 treats your entire dashboard as pages too.
and like todd said, google ignores bots.
Generally stats like this are annoyingly slippery so the best option is to just treat google as the standard that everyone is playing on. I know it's annoying, but that's kinda how I do it. If i'm talking to a business person in SFO about concrete5's growth I can drop that we had a million page views last month according to google analytics and they can believe what I'm saying, because its google analytics.
Thanks! This helps a lot. I noticed the difference before, but today was asked by our CFO what our numbers were, and figured I better find out what's causing the difference to give them an accurate count.
I'm getting the sense that the actual hits are closer to Google Analytics' numbers: 813
and not the 68,000 of Concrete5. :/ 68,000 sounds much better though. ;)
I'm getting the sense that the actual hits are closer to Google Analytics' numbers: 813
and not the 68,000 of Concrete5. :/ 68,000 sounds much better though. ;)
Is this still the case with Concrete5 stats?
Hi!
I noticed that some of the information on this thread may be outdated.
What is currently the most accurate and detailed way to track page views - and the easiest to install for a newbie who doesn't know anything about code?
Thank you,
Beachgirl
I noticed that some of the information on this thread may be outdated.
What is currently the most accurate and detailed way to track page views - and the easiest to install for a newbie who doesn't know anything about code?
Thank you,
Beachgirl
Use google analytics. it's the standard that people will be measuring you
against.
best wishes
Franz Maruna
CEO - PortlandLabs Inc
against.
best wishes
Franz Maruna
CEO - PortlandLabs Inc
Dear Franz -
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly! Will following the video
instructions and use google analytics.
Everything is going quite well with my site so far...sometimes the
captcha is glitch-y, but other than that I think I am off to a solid
start.
Of course, you can always take a look at pjbraley.com and let me know
what you think, but I like it very much and don't believe there is a
CMS available that would have let a newbie like me build it as I saw
it in my head (with the help of your wonderful techs).
Thank you, as ever, for your concern and advice.
Beachgirl
Quoting concrete5 Community <discussions@concretecms.com>:
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly! Will following the video
instructions and use google analytics.
Everything is going quite well with my site so far...sometimes the
captcha is glitch-y, but other than that I think I am off to a solid
start.
Of course, you can always take a look at pjbraley.com and let me know
what you think, but I like it very much and don't believe there is a
CMS available that would have let a newbie like me build it as I saw
it in my head (with the help of your wonderful techs).
Thank you, as ever, for your concern and advice.
Beachgirl
Quoting concrete5 Community <discussions@concretecms.com>:
Awesome to hear, thanks!
best wishes
Franz Maruna
CEO - PortlandLabs Inc
best wishes
Franz Maruna
CEO - PortlandLabs Inc
Not all count the same. Google support pagehttp://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans...
states:
Terminology: The terminology used in one program may not mean the same thing or may not be measured the same way as in another program. Pageviews are generally similar between vendors; however, it's much more difficult to define a visit or a visitor. In Analytics, if a user comes to your site twice within thirty minutes without closing their browser, they'll register as one visit. Other web analytics solutions may treat this behavior as two visits, depending on their definitions.
Tracking methods: There are two main methods of tracking activity: cookie-based and IP + User Agent.
Cookie-based tracking relies on a browser setting the cookie. If cookies are disabled, cookie-based analytics programs (such as Google Analytics) will not count the visit. This would exclude, for example, hits from a robot or spider.
IP + User Agent tracking typically uses log file analysis for its data. This may report higher numbers than reported by cookie-based tracking because of dynamically assigned IP addresses and spider and robot visits.
Visitor browser preferences: Visitors must have JavaScript, images, and cookies enabled in their browsers in order for Analytics to report their visit. Depending on their method of collecting data, other analytics solutions may still register these visitors.
states:
Terminology: The terminology used in one program may not mean the same thing or may not be measured the same way as in another program. Pageviews are generally similar between vendors; however, it's much more difficult to define a visit or a visitor. In Analytics, if a user comes to your site twice within thirty minutes without closing their browser, they'll register as one visit. Other web analytics solutions may treat this behavior as two visits, depending on their definitions.
Tracking methods: There are two main methods of tracking activity: cookie-based and IP + User Agent.
Cookie-based tracking relies on a browser setting the cookie. If cookies are disabled, cookie-based analytics programs (such as Google Analytics) will not count the visit. This would exclude, for example, hits from a robot or spider.
IP + User Agent tracking typically uses log file analysis for its data. This may report higher numbers than reported by cookie-based tracking because of dynamically assigned IP addresses and spider and robot visits.
Visitor browser preferences: Visitors must have JavaScript, images, and cookies enabled in their browsers in order for Analytics to report their visit. Depending on their method of collecting data, other analytics solutions may still register these visitors.
does anyone chance to know what Clicky uses as a counting method? I can see in the dashboard that IP adresses are listed, so maybe no cookies here?
