I am a web developer and not a marketing or analytics expert. I was asked to review a website for any possible issues with how GA tracking is working.
There was a change on the graph of the data (users, sessions etc) around the end of August.
Before that date, daily data had smaller differences between each other and the whole daily graph was a smoother curve. After that date, it seems like one day is too high, then the next day is too low. Day by day there are bigger differences in the recorded data. And this change has lasted now for 10 weeks.
The site owner can not explain, nor understand what those metrics mean. He is worried that maybe he is not getting accurate data.
The change in GA data can be seen on the attached screenshot.
I have asked him about any possible changes on the website - close to the date when the data started displaying differently and waiting for his answers.
But in the meantime, I have started investigating and researching about this.
I am testing out the Real Time tracking with various browsers and up until now, I can see all my hits been recorded.
I didn't have much success while I was googling about this - it's hard to write a question/terms about this, that will bring absolutely relative results.
So, I thought I should post in GA community forums or in here... to see what feedback I can get about this.
My questions:
- Could this change in data denote an anomaly?
- How could it be explained?
- What could be causing this?
Update
Screenshot of the Google Search Console Clicks and Impressions of the same period.
