Tell me more ×
Webmasters Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for pro webmasters. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

I see differences between Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Why are they different and which is more accurate. How can i interpret data from both correctly?

share|improve this question

migrated from stackoverflow.com Apr 6 '11 at 8:02

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Google Analytics only works for visitors running javascript, that also wait for your javascript to load and communicate with Google.

This would exclude most bots and people who did not want to wait for your page to load.

Webmaster tools on the other hand also shows information about how a site performs in the search result pages.

I personally think the analytics data is more useful.

share|improve this answer
how about semrush? do you know about it. are their data relevant? – danniel Apr 5 '11 at 16:42
semrush seems to be about getting guesses about the traffic of your competitors, probably similar to alexa. If you want information about your own sites, go with the google tools – dontomaso Apr 5 '11 at 17:11
I think with google analytics you can now use images for tracking thereby removing the need for javascript? – Codek Apr 7 '11 at 7:21
up vote 1 down vote

This is a bit like wondering why your Gmail, Google Voice and Google Wave inboxes all contain somewhat different messages.

Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools aren't directly comparable. They do different things. At any rate, both use approximate data and this can be dicey when the overall volume is low and estimations are difficult.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.