"It's all down to an analytics illusion, which shows that visits have increased, when in truth they've dropped. Here's how it works..."
How accurate is Google Analytics? Pretty accurate, right? I mean, it's Google. How could it not be accurate?
Well, it's certainly an extremely sound piece of tech. But what happens when people block it? This question takes us into a largely unexplored world of visitors I'm going to describe as "unrecordables". Unrecordables may not feature in your Google Analytics reports, but they're still very real, and just like your recordable visitors, they need to buy products and services.
WHY ARE UNRECORDABLES UNRECORDABLE?
The functionality of Google Analytics requires visitors to have cookies enabled. But a lot of Web users block cookies by default, and then selectively enable them, per login. That leaves Google Analytics unable to record those people's visits, and reduces the accuracy of the tool.
But there are also numerous other factors that reduce the accuracy of Google Analytics. Top of the list? Browser-based ad-blocking routines.
Many ad-blockers are customisable through the addition of extra block lists. So even if by default the routine doesn't block Google Analytics, it can be modified so that it does. For example, Adblock Plus - an extension that hit the hundred million users mark back in 2016 - does not block Google Analytics out of the box. Adblock Plus will most likely install with a block filter list called EasyList. The block filter list is just a text file that tells the ad-blocker what to block. And EasyList was compiled specifically to block ads. Not tracking tools.
However, if users also choose to add the EasyPrivacy list, their browser will then block Google Analytics. If you're the kind of person who would go to the trouble of installing an ad-blocker, you're probably going to at least consider increasing its blocking capacity. And remember, the aforementioned hundred million users only relate to one ad-blocking extension. There are others - some of which do block Google Analytics out of the box.
Then there's the phenomenon of the pre-configured "privacy" browser. Brave browser, for instance, will block Google Analytics without the need to install any third party tools at all.
And some people simply opt out of Google Analytics tracking, via the official Google preference register.
So there's a high volume of people out there who can potentially reach your site, but will not show up in your Google Analytics reports.
That obviously doesn't mean you're losing sales. But the remedy you might employ to rectify the inaccurate visitor reports, could…
WHAT'S THE REMEDY?
You might opt for an alternative analytics suite, but there's no free option that even comes close to Google's offering for detail and integration-potential. And alternatives are still liable to be blocked by the same people who block Google.
So what an increasing number of businesses are doing, is setting up their own reciprocal blocking mechanisms which decline page access to visitors who block tracking tools. For example, a website can detect whether a browser is blocking cookies and/or JavaScript, and decline to show the page until both functionalities are accepted by the visitor. This is now common, and the system can be witnessed in action on huge platforms, such as Pinterest.
It's also possible for a site to detect ad-blockers, and once again, deny page access to anyone who has them in use.
But it only makes sense to do this if display advertising is one of your key revenue sources. For example, if you're a publisher, as opposed to a product or service vendor. It wouldn't be a great idea for, say, a home improvements store to reject visitors on the basis that they use an ad-blocker.
To clarify, an ad-blocker works by refusing to load content from pre-set domains that are known for serving networked ads or running cross-site tracking programmes. If you've set up your own site and you're only advertising your own products, an ad-blocker won't block any of that. So you shouldn't be dismissing visitors on the basis that they use an ad-blocker. And the same goes for JavaScript and cookies.
True, visitors may need to enable cookies if they want to buy something from you, but you can cross that bridge when you come to it. When they first hit your domain, those people should still be able to see your pages without accepting cookies and JavaScript.
The problem is, a lot of smaller e-commerce sites are now being gated as if they're publishers, with their pages refusing to load for unrecordables. The site owners are not necessarily requesting this, and often they don't even know their pages are not loading. The reason it's happening is that some of the pre-assembled code sections developers are using to build semi-bespoke sites, were not designed for e-commerce. They were coded for industries that rely on display ads and/or inter-domain tracking for their revenue. Compounding the problem, in the lower budget area of semi-bespoke sites, error-handling is not very efficient. The site won't tell the visitor why they can't see the page. It'll just show them a blank screen.
It's easy to see how refusing to show a visitor your pages would damage sales on an e-commerce site. But how does this relate to analytics? And how many potential customers does it affect?
THE ANALYTICS BLIND-SPOT ILLUSION
It's all down to an analytics illusion, which shows that visits have increased, when in truth they've dropped. Here's how it works…
Let's say you're a musical instruments vendor. You had an old website, built in 2008, and it needed updating. So you called in a developer to rebuild it.
The developer showed you some nice, modern JavaScript templates, and you chose one as a jumping-off point. All good so far. The templates are cookie and JavaScript dependent, and they won't load pages if the visitor uses an ad-blocker. The developer didn't mention that.
And what you hadn't been aware of, was that 14% of your site visitors were unrecordables. People who were, through one means or another, blocking Google Analytics. They visited your site, read your site, and took an interest. Some visited your high street store, and some of those people bought your instruments and/or accessories. Your old site had been converting in a way that could not be recorded in any online analytics report.
Your new site goes live. Looks great! At least it does if the visitor is not using any elevated privacy protections. If they are, all they'll now see is a blank page.
So 14% of real visitors are now unable to see anything at all on your site. The exact same 14% of visitors who were unrecordable, and who never showed up in your analytics reports.
5% of those visitors are so keen to see your pages that they will go to the trouble of enabling cookies, enabling JavaScript, and exempting your domain in their ad-blocker.
Those 5% of unrecordables are now recordables. Nothing's changed in real terms. They've been visitors all along. But now that they've turned off their privacy enhancements, Google Analytics can see them.
So when you look at your next analytics report, you're going to see something that looks like fantastic news. A full 5% increase in visitor stats. Brilliant! That site upgrade really did the trick!
Or did it? Sadly not. The only trick your site upgrade has really done is to lose you the 9% of unrecordable visitors who can no longer see your pages, and with whom, as a result, you can no longer communicate. You can no longer show them your offers. No longer entice them with pictures of your stock… Your Analytics stats for this December will be up on last year's. Your actual sales will be down.
This illusion, caused by the blind spot of analytics tools, really can lose businesses sales. Particularly smaller businesses who upgrade to semi-bespoke sites, built around set-piece JavaScript blocks that were not specifically developed for e-commerce. The two lessons are:
1) Don't extend too much reverence to analytics tools. They're great for giving insights into what customers like. Not so good for accurately monitoring your total volume of visitors.
2) If you're purely a self-sufficient vendor and you're having any website redevelopment work done, insist that the developer builds pages that will load at any level of browser privacy, independently of JavaScript, cookie or ad-blocker settings.
If you're a straightforward vendor or service provider who doesn't earn revenue from networked ads or tracking, there's no reason to be blocking unrecordables. And certainly not before you've even shown them the amazing things you have to offer. Chances are you go to considerable lengths and expense to make your business visible in search. After all that, thowing away, say, 9% of the visits you get is crazy.