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Google explains discrepancy in Analytics visits figure
05/02/2010
Have you ever wondered why, in Google Analytics, a page sometimes receives more 'unique visitors' than 'visits'?
Google Analytics users may have spotted a mysterious event, where a page receives more 'unique visitors' than 'visits' on any given day.
Now Google Analytics team member Nick Mihailovski has cleared up where the discrepancy arises from - and how the different figures can be incorporated into analytics to determine the success of different content.
He explains that the first hit an individual creates on the site - due to landing on a page, carrying out a transaction or triggering some other event - is the only time the 'visits' figure is incremented.
But each subsequent page they hit also receives an additional 'unique visitor' in the statistics, meaning if the page was visited but was not the entry point on to the site, the apparent number of visitors can exceed the number of visits.
Google Analytics tracks unique visitors as they move between pages that include the Urchin tracking code, allowing the total time an individual spends on the site to be measured as long as they do not browse to a page where the code is not installed.
Now Google Analytics team member Nick Mihailovski has cleared up where the discrepancy arises from - and how the different figures can be incorporated into analytics to determine the success of different content.
He explains that the first hit an individual creates on the site - due to landing on a page, carrying out a transaction or triggering some other event - is the only time the 'visits' figure is incremented.
But each subsequent page they hit also receives an additional 'unique visitor' in the statistics, meaning if the page was visited but was not the entry point on to the site, the apparent number of visitors can exceed the number of visits.
Google Analytics tracks unique visitors as they move between pages that include the Urchin tracking code, allowing the total time an individual spends on the site to be measured as long as they do not browse to a page where the code is not installed.