Don’t get me wrong, I understand enough to get by, and I actually used to use Google Analytics a lot more than I currently do (for past work) and it’s taken me a bit to get back into it. But it just seems that lately I’ve been getting a lot of skewed results due to AWFUL referral spam; I’ve read many articles and I’ve tried countless ways to get rid of it.
I just wish there was a way to learn more and be better.
Ok, well that sentence probably applies to my entire life and everything I do. Actually, I think that might be my mantra from now on? I just came up with that right now… man I’m so clever!
Anyways – yes yes, there is a Google Analytics course you can take – and I’ll definitely be doing that WHEN I have time. But until then, you know what, I just wish Google Analytics would fix the problem for me. It’s not like I’m the only one with the same problem stemming from the same referral spam sites (just do a search and there will be LOTS of blog posts you can read referencing the same bad examples).
Is it wrong of me to think that Google can fix this for me? Does it come off like I’m expecting things to be handed to me on a silver platter? Maybe… but at the same time it would be helping MANY other web analysts out there if we got the problem fixed at the source, rather than try and hack away Band-Aid solutions to mask it.
Conversely, is it even Google that would fix this!? I mean, their analytics platform is tracking these spammy hits on my sites; but maybe other analytics’ programs are affected too. I guess I have the idea in my head that Google is this giant conglomerate of internet authority (and whatever they say goes). They spend so much time creating new systems to better display search results, so us web designers and developers have to adapt to these changes. But how can we update our websites and improve our SEO when we can’t even properly monitor our site visits?!
I think that’s it for my rant this week – if you’re having the same issue, maybe we can vent silently together or something? If there is one take-away, it’s that all we can do as marketers/developers/designers/whatevers is to just learn more and be better.