Sold Two Cat Trees-Analytics Can Lie!
Update:
I have learned that Analytics will show Time on Page as zero if a visitor only reads on page or post on our sites. So even if they spent a half hour on the post it would still show as zero time if they did not click on something or go to another post. That is why it is a good idea to have a place for visitors to interact on our sites such as "Read More" options or a check box.
I have noticed this many times. Google Analytics is a GREAT tool but it is not entirely accurate. For example, many of the records there show "Time on Page" as zero. I may believe this was true except I can tell it is not always correct. I sold a cat tree each of the last two days. This is awesome! After my busy summer I have not had much time for my site and in fact have not added a post for months! (I added a post to my human health site recently).
I see on Google Analytics that a few people have been visiting my cat tree posts but the Time on Page is zero for all those pages recently. Since Amazon has a 24 hour cookie, the view of the post would have to be recent. Therefore, I am pretty sure Google Analytics is incorrect. I don't think two different cat trees would be purchased on two different days with both customers spending no time on any of my related posts. Of course it is possible someone buought the cat trees coincidentally and did not even go through the cat tree posts.
As I posted here yesterday, I get many unrelated sales that have nothing to do with my reviews. It is also possible someone planned to buy a cat tree and went through one of my posts to Amazon. However, this type of situation has happened many times before. The brand of the second cat tree is the brand I recommend as well. I seriously doubt both people spent no time at all on my posts when I know there was traffic to those posts and sales of the product I recommend in those posts.
Another example of Google Analytics' shortcomings is the fact that organic search traffic can show up as "Direct" traffic.
I love Google Analytics and will never stop using it. I just want people to know it is not 100% accurate.
Jessica
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I'm happy to hear this as my last post 2 days ago qas a review of cat trees! I'm also in the cat niche and this is my first blog with WA. I've also often wondered if stats are really accurate. I use statcounter and it often shows 0 time spent on various pages. Well done anyway and may you sell many more cat trees!
Thanks Kathy. I hope your site does well.
I did not understand but based on the comments here, no matter how much time someone spends on one page it will show as zero time if they don't click on something or go to another one of our pages. If they just stay on one page (even for a long time) and then leave, it will count as a bounce and be zero time on page. That is one reason to have a Read More button or some other way to get readers to click on something. That click will allow the time they spent to be counted.
Yes. Apparently is missed/forgot how it works. Unless they go to another page or click on something, it will show as zero time on page no matter how long they spent on it.
As LyleWatt said, google only records time from clicking on your site to the time the visitor clicks another link or action on your site. A visitor could spend 20 minutes on one page, get the answer they need and close it down and google will register it as a 'bounce' with time on site of 0. If the visitor clicked just one part of your page before they left (even a tickbox question at the bottom like 'was this page helpful yes/ no') you would get 20mins site time and 1 less bounce.
That's why a lot of commercial sites give you teaser text and keep making you click 'read more' or an arrow to continue reading. Each time you click on their site, google analytics records the action as another page view, time on site, non-bounce etc.
Doesn't seem that fair, but I guess Google doesn't have to be!
That is great to know. I either never knew or forgot that! I will have to work on adding more forms of interaction on my site!
Thanks
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for the share! I guess you learn something new every day. Congratulations on your sales! Much success to you!
Kind regards,
Nichola
Time will register as 0 seconds if someone comes to your site and then leaves from the same page.
So if someone comes directly to the review of the cat tree - spends 20 minutes reading it and then decides they want to buy it and leave your site without visiting another page it will show as 0 seconds spend by them on your site.
If however they spend 20 minutes reading the review, then click through to another review of yours it will show as 20 minutes spent on your site as they have gone to another page.
Wow! I never knew that. That is crazy. I wonder why it shows that way? Thank you so much for explaining this.
Jessica
Because I presume if someone only goes to one page and leaves on that page there is no way for Google to record the time spent on that page. It would need an action for them to act as a marker and register that.
This is a correct explanation. This is one of the reasons (but not the most important one obviously) why high bounce rate sites tend to have a short time on page. The bounce rate is then probably correct but the session time is not. I can see this when I compare my sites.
Might be wrong here, I was lead to believe that if no action is taken on your site then it registers as zero.
I do know for sure my GSC is waaay out - the GSC and GA are not correlated at all!.
I am editing old posts, getting comments on posts etc. I just haven't added any new posts lately. Even when I was adding posts regularly and very active on my site the Google Analytics results were similar. I have always noticed this glitch.
I have always wondered if Analytics or GSC were more accurate. It seems Analytics is generally more accurate.
Not in my case - I am getting about 10x more visitors from google on GA that the number of clicks displayed on GSC.
Thanks Jessica. I just learnt something new about Google analytics.
Congratulations on your sales. It's cool that you even get some sales that are not even related to your posts too.
Best wishes.
Yes I have. I only started working consistently on my site a few months ago. So I'm not surprised where I am now. I know if I continue to put in the work success will come.
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Thanks, this is helpful to know!
You are welcome.