I'm Puzzled - Analytics Questions.

[Emcar Vending]

I've just been looking at the Google Analytics for one of my websites and found something strange.

I have a news page which is updated once or twice a month. According to the analytics, nobody has viewed this page in the last twelve months, but I know some people have read it as they've commented on what I've written.

Does anybody know why this has happened?

I'm also having difficulty finding if I have any inbound links. I can't find any in GA. Does anybody know where they are or where I can find out what links (if any) I may have.

Thanks in avance for any help.

 

[paulus]

I've found that GA has a response time of a few hours, so if those visitors only recently used your site, they may not be shown. They certainly won't show up immediately.

To find your inbound links, you can use Google Webmaster Tools (recommended, as it offers a wealth of other information about your site) or Yahoo Site Explorer.

 

[LandingNet]

This is probably going to sound a daft question, but have you ensured that your analytics code on the news page is set up correctly? Most of the time this is the reason this is why it collects no data.

As for the inbound links, you'll only know about them if a user has clicked on one of them - if they have, it'll show up in the "referring sites" section of the report

 

[Emcar Vending]

Thanks, Paulus & LandingNet

I'll look into Webmaster Tools.

Comments have been made about the news page for a while but the visits aren't showing.

I don't recall setting anything up for any of the pages for GA, but I'll check that.

 

[jasonatbbi]

Hi,
There are lots of free back link (or inbound link) checkers out there. Just Google the term.
If you are looking at the Emcar Vending Machines site, you have about 300 backlinks listed with Yahoo but none at all with Google.
As for understanding your analytics - I know a guy who's very good at that. His name is Adam and I can give you his details if you like.
Cheers,
Jason

 

[paulus]

If you are looking at the Emcar Vending Machines site, you have about 300 backlinks listed with Yahoo but none at all with Google.

If you are using the link: operator in Google, you probably know that it provides flaky results. But it's probably worth saying for the OP's benefit

The results from Google Webmaster Tools are more comprehensive than those given by the link: operator, but even GWT usually reports fewer than Yahoo.

 

[redtreeland]

are you sure you have the analytics code for that profile in there?

 

[Experienced IT guy]

One of the most common reasons for pages not showing up is that the analytics code is missing from that page. With a good CMS (content management sytem) you will have a master template page which will have the anyalytics code embedded and you will automatcally get the code in any new pages derived from that master template. This is not the same as having the analytics code just on the home page - or something like that! Hope this helps - if it does click thanks

 

[wykthorr]

You should make sure the GA code is there (and with the appropriate profile ID). I forgot to change it once for a site and I couldn't understand why nobody was visiting it.

As for backlinks, either get into Google Webmaster Tools, Google search with the link operator or Yahoo Site Explorer. From what I've read and my personal experience Yahoo Site explorer tends give a more closer to reality list of links. It might take Google Webmaster Tools quite some to update data. Even if Google knows about the links and use them to determine your search ranking they might not show in GWT for a while (or at all).