Gordon Murray

Checking Google Analytics numbers I often wonder about the numbers that Google Analytics shows me about visitors or referrals to my site.

At the moment Im using Google Analytics, StatCounter, Blacknight Logs and my own PHP script to log the visitors to my site which I’ll compare at some stage to see if they all match up in numbers of visitors.

Over the weekend I ran a smaller experiment. I wanted to see if the  number of referrals from Google Searches match in both Google Analytics and my own PHP script.

The short answer is that they don’t match up. I’m guessing its down to the time zone. My PHP script measures a full day as midnight  to midnight GMT.  Google Analytics probably uses a different time zone which might explain the different numbers.

According to Google Analytics there were 26 referrals to this blog over the weekend, Saturday the 7th and Sunday the 8th.

According to my own script which I call “Whats Google Up to” there were 35 referrals to my site over the same period.

According to Google Analytics, the terms that people searched for and ended up on this blog were :

“jobless and proud (X 2), 11850 bloggs, 7th grade invention ideas, campbell scott, campbell scott ireland igo people, can’t access facebook ads manager, cat 5 speed test, cvv2 email address, mobile number, facebook advertising dollars, facebook billing, great week comments, help for jobless, i can’t see traffic from facebook ad google analytic, igo people, jawbone connecting and disconnecting, list of graphic designers, microsoft project connection with springloops, microsoft silverlight course, mini-notebook development, nitrosell, what is igo, what’s the maximum amount of money i can put on a 3v card?, where are all the comps, windows 7 2.43gb, wireless router speed test”

According to my script, the terms that people searched for were:

“Microsoft project connection with springloops, using subversion with springloops, windows 7 beta 3rd monitor, wireless router speed test , cat 5 speed test, house phone , facebook billing, where are all the comps, netgear router running at 1 mbs connection when laptop connected, Jobless and Proud, netgear router running at 1 mbs connection when laptop connected, cvv2 email address, mobile number, help for jobless, wordpress blogs, can\’t access facebook ads manager, campbell scott , jobless and proud, mini-notebook development , Facebook advertising dollars , campbell scott ireland igo people, hosting presence provider service web, nitrosell, WHAT IS igo, computers internet blog, Microsoft SilverLight Course, what\’s the maximum amount of money i can put on a 3v card?, igo people, irish facebook, i cant see traffic from facebook ad google analytic, developing content management system web pages, jawbone connecting and disconnecting , ist of graphic designers , 7th grade invention ideas, windows 7 2.43gb, 11850 bloggs“

The 9 that appear on my own list that do not appear on Google Analytics are:

• using subversion with springloops (Saturday 7th March, 2009 at 1:04:56) (www.google.com)
• windows 7 beta 3rd monitor (Saturday 7th March, 2009 at 1:27:14) (www.google.com)
• house phone (Saturday 7th March, 2009 at 5:21:14) (www.google.com) (Google Mobile)
• netgear router running at 1 mbs connection when laptop connected (Saturday 7th March, 2009 at 13:05:33) (www.google.co.uk)
• wordpress blogs (Saturday 7th March, 2009 at 16:16:52) (www.google.com)
• hosting presence provider service web (Sunday 8th March, 2009 at 0:08:29) (www.google.com)
• computers internet blog (Sunday 8th March, 2009 at 5:05:20) (www.google.com)
• irish facebook (Sunday 8th March, 2009 at 16:41:01) (www.google.ie)
• developing content management system web pages (Sunday 8th March, 2009 at 19:46:23) (www.google.co.uk)

My script recorded only 1 image search referral in that period, Google Analytics tells me there were 3. Thats for another day, I never considered image search referrals in my script so there is room for improvement.

I assumed that the 9 search terms that my script recorded happened during a period of time that Google Analytics may have considered another day. It doesn’t appear so. These search terms were searched for on Saturday 1am to Saturday 4pm approx and also Sunday midnight to 8pm.

Using Google analytics I looked for these keywords on the days before and after the 7th and 8th. They don’t show up.

So I have 9 referrals to my site over the weekend that Google Analytics doesn’t show. My script shows me exactly what was searched for using which Google TLD. Google Analytics doesn’t show me which Google TLD Was used though.

An interesting note too is that my script can show the punctuation or type-case used such as full capitals  typed in when searching, Google Analytics doesn’t (in case thats any use to anyone).

Filed under:
business, development by Gordon Murray