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The situation isn't as simple as "have you checked if the GA tag is installed?".

Here's what I got:

  • a main WP install on /blog/
  • a second WP install on /blog2/ (not actually named blog2, of course).

Both have GA installed properly and has worked for years.

Starting the last week, on blog2 the traffic seemed to disappear in GA: http://prntscr.com/ufyug2

On /blog/ everything looks good, though.

GA is installed correctly and I checked it manually, with two Chrome extensions.

I didn't get dropped from Google SERP either. My posts are exactly where they were 2 weeks ago.

Google Console shows no change. Screenshot of a random article from blog2: http://prntscr.com/ufyv9b

I even disabled JS and HTML minification from W3 total cache, in case there was a conflict somehow.

Aaaand still no change.

Do you guys have any idea what could cause this?

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    Can you use the real time reporting to see your own hits as you browse the blog2?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 8:41
  • Yes. There are some visits. blog2 accounted for 20% of the visits, yet when I look at the real time reports, I get maybe 1/20 visits on one of the links in there, in the best case scenario.
    – Punct Ulica
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 9:08
  • Some GA plugins for WordPress ignore admin users. e.g. if you are logged in as an admin you do not cause a pageview. Can you double check that.
    – Tony McCreath
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 21:44
  • What plugins are you using on blog2 and have any of them been updated in the past week or so?
    – I Capulet
    Commented Sep 13, 2020 at 17:58
  • I update everything as soon as a new plugin version is available. Now that you asked about plugins, I disabled almost everything except Yoast and a few basic ones. Let's see how it goes, but I doubt it will move the needle.
    – Punct Ulica
    Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 7:17

1 Answer 1

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I'll answer my own question for those who might have the same issue in the future.

The problem was a malware that ended up in a lot of my WP install files.

How it got there? I don't know exactly. I changed the passwords for the FTP, WP admin, database, and modified the CHMOD for several folders that were a security risk. Also Wordfence + All in ONE WP Security.

No more problems now.

This malware was redirecting my traffic to a survey type of site where, I guess, was collecting user data. It looked something like this: http://prntscr.com/urpnki

That URL is not working. No need to try it.

Stay safe!

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  • Thanks for sharing this. Worth knowing that a strange loss in GA data could be an indication of a hack.
    – Tony McCreath
    Commented Oct 2, 2020 at 23:20

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