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Google, I’d Like You To Meet Google
Since the introduction of Android, I keep hearing the meme that Google is getting to be like Microsoft, and this is a natural reaction to a degree. One point of differentiation, however, is the fact that so many Google offerings are free. I use many of these services as a search engine marketer as well as in my recreational computing. I almost hate to get too particular when something of value is given to me without an exchange of dollars, but here it goes.
I was looking at some statistics in Google Analytics today and was really digging deep into the referrer data as well as the traffic delivered from search engines. It is important to look at both when evaluating a holistic online marketing campaign. In doing this, I stumbled upon a string of what is purported to be non-search engine referrers. There I found a series of IP addresses. (I’ve redacted some data in the screen capture below.)
When I attempted to see which websites were delivering this traffic, all of them were Google IPs! Is Google so huge that Google doesn’t even recognize Google when she sees herself? I’d presume that any searches performed at these IPs would not make it to the overall referring keyword data. Although these IPs do not represent a huge amount of traffic, it still points to the fact that data from your web analytics likely contain inaccuracies.
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Comments
2 Comments so far2 Responses to “Google, I’d Like You To Meet Google”
This has also puzzled me, too, Matt. I’m glad you bring this up. Your example refutes the notion held by many that web stats always reveal crystal-clear, definitive pictures of traffic. Your illustration reminds us that Google Analytics, as well as any other web stat software that yields the same Google oddities, is not the be-all and end-all of understanding web traffic.
Great investigation on your part Matt. You like their tools, but it’s important to be fair overall in evaluating the big companies.