Stats Jetpack vs Google Analytics

  • zarinakadirbaks · Member ·

    Hi! I’ve been noticing something really odd with my stats since January 2021. Before that, the stats in Jetpack and Google Analytics were pretty much the same, but since January GA shows only half the number of page views/users compared to Jetpack. Looking at the numbers in the months before, I’d say that Jetpack is correct, which is twice as much as GA. However, clients prefer GA stats which is a real shame as those numbers are so much lower. Could you please advise me on what to do? I’m aware that there’s always a discrepancy between Jetpack and GA, but a difference of over 2,000 page views a month is a lot! Also, most forum discussions seem to suggest that GA usually display higher numbers, but for me it’s the other way round which is also odd. I hadn’t made any changes myself on my site or in GA. Would really want this to be fixed, thank you!

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • staff-mckluskey · Staff ·

    Hi there!

    So yeah, all stats tracking systems collect and report information differently.

    For example, Jetpack’s stats do not include visits from logged-in users by default. Many site owners find this useful, since tracking your own visits artificially inflates your traffic. That’s the most common explanation for the variance between your other stats system and Jetpack’s.

    Jetpack also does not report visits in real-time. That is, there’s a bit of a lag between when visits occur, and when they are reported in your stats.

    Additionally, there are certain search engine robots and “spiders” that Jetpack doesn’t count, and referrers that are considered spam referrers by Akismet (our spam-catching plugin) will not be reported in your stats. Other tracking systems may be less discerning in what they count toward the stat they report to you, and therefore give you different numbers than we do.

    Finally, the different rates at which all these trackers are blocked by the different ad-blocking browser extensions can also affect your stats.

    For all of those reasons, different stat tracking methods will rarely, if ever, be in sync. We can’t really offer more help regarding Google Analytics. You may want to contact Google directly so they can check if everything works correctly on their end.

    I hope that helps.

  • zarinakadirbaks · Member ·

    Thanks for your answer, but all these things you mention suggest that Jetpack would register lower numbers than GA while at the moment it’s the other way round.

    Till December 2020 both visitor numbers and page views were pretty much the same but since January GA displays half of Jetpack both in visitor numbers and page views. As I wrote I’m aware of discrepancies but this sudden and very drastic difference seems really strange.

    I’d love to contact Google, but how does one do that directly?

  • zarinakadirbaks · Member ·

    Hi, thanks for your reply.

    It’s unfortunately not that helpful as all the possible reasons you list suggest that Jetpack should show lower stats while in fact Jetpack shows twice the number of page views and visitors than GA.

    As I wrote, these numbers were pretty much the same on the two different platforms up until December 2020 but since Januaru 2021, GA shows half the numbers of what Jetpack is showing me. I was hoping you could help me pointing me towards a solution as all the articles and forum topics I consulted about this issue all say the same as you: that Jetpack generally shows lower numbers than GA but for me it the other way round. Since this sudden and drastic change happened without me making any changes myself is really worrying.

    I understand this is out of your hands. I’d love to contact Google, but how does one do that??

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hey there,

    As I was catching up with this thread I was also thinking that reaching out to Google may be helpful just to make sure they aren’t seeing any aberrations from their end.

    Google’s general support page can be found here:

    https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9026876?hl=en

    You can reach out to them via their community forums, live chat, or email it seems. Please touch base with them and keep us updated.

    Thank you!

  • The topic ‘Stats Jetpack vs Google Analytics’ is closed to new replies.