Analytics Unpacked

Google told to 'stop the BS' as it claims AI has not harmed website clickthroughs Google's head of search has claimed that the platform is seeing "slightly more quality clicks to websites than a year ago" following the launch of AI Overviews.

Google told to ‘stop the BS’ as it claims AI has not harmed website clickthroughs

pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/go...

Tip: you may need to multiply your Google Analytics numbers to account for the people who declined cookies.

Given that the Google Analytics 'click' event relates to outbound links, how about a new name? Maybe 'click_away' or 'click_exit' would work.

Welcome to August: the month that's the nadir of many project managers.

Remembering a confusing conversation I had earlier in the year: trying to explain Google Analytics events to someone who used their website to promote events. Argh...

Tip: don’t forget that Google Analytics focuses on 'active' users. That’s not a number you can easily compare with data from other packages.

I was recently running some tests in Google Analytics and noticed that the value for my city was all over the place. In some cases GA was 80 miles off. Anyone else seen this?

It's been 2.5 years and I'm still getting factual errors out of ChatGPT.

Woah

The danger of the Realtime Overview Insight and grumbles about Google Analytics

The most popular post on my blog in Q2 this year:
The danger of the Realtime Overview

Great idea. A bit like when Kindle underlines quotes others have saved.

The danger of the Realtime Overview Insight and grumbles about Google Analytics

The most popular post on my blog in Q2 this year:
The danger of the Realtime Overview

You may be surprised to hear that 'Referral' includes click-throughs from AI chatbots.

Hey Google Analytics, when you refer to a referral, what do you mean? Insight and grumbles about Google Analytics

In Google Analytics some traffic from social media gets filed in the wrong acquisition channel. I give details in the second-half of yesterday's post:

From earlier ⬇️

Hey Google Analytics, when you refer to a referral, what do you mean? Insight and grumbles about Google Analytics

Hey Google Analytics, when you refer to a referral, what do you mean?

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This is an excellent bit of analysis ⬇️

The idea also lets the capabilities of AI define what has value. Project management is high-value work, but illustration is not high-value work in that world.

Direct/Direct? That's a first.

140k subs is impressive for our niche. Good work.

You've spent ages crafting a title tag for your page.

It's perfect.

You're going to start seeing all the clicks (and conversions) roll in!

You publish.

And then a few weeks later, you spot the page in the wild? And the title tag has changed?

Why?

Here's why: 🧵

Nice work. I didn't know this.

Great point. Haven't considered auto-fill in this context.

Instead I'm looking into ways to use WordPress to generate a static website. The main contenders so far:
- HardyPress
- Shifter
- SimplyStatic

(3/3)

A static site generator would be the way to go, but they're too techy for me. I hear there are few, if any, with a visual interface. That's an obstacle if I ever want to get others involved in working on the website.

(2/x)

Plotting my next step towards a low-carbon website. I've been inspired by the work of @lowtechmagazine.bsky.social - I want to move to a static website. That reduces the workload of the server, which should mean less carbon emissions.

(1/x)

You know what would be useful? A Chrome plugin that connects with your Google Analytics account and alerts you to a spike in page views.

Maybe the resolution is just laziness on the part of a bot-developer?

This is interesting. I have seen bots showing up in Google Analytics occasionally (see: www.analyticsunpacked.com/2024/09/spik...).

That said, one should show caution as the post is from a GA competitor. Will dig deeper into this at some point, I think.