Sudden nosedive in site visitors contradicted by JetPack

  • Resolved IainPurdie

    (@iainpurdie)


    7 months, 1 week ago

    I’ve done a bit of digging and wondering if removing a plugin I was trialling on a WordPress site could have affected my Google Site Kit / Analytics figures? Details:

    On April 12th I spotted that JetPack were now charging to look at my traffic figures in detail, so I thought I’d look elsewhere. We’re a small website and don’t exactly pull in enough money to make the premium features worthwhile. I already had (and still have) Google Site Kit installed, linked to Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, PageSpeed Insights and Tag Manager. However, I spotted MonsterInsights and installed it for a trial.

    I gave it a few hours, realised that it was just a freemium overlay of Google Analytics, and uninstalled it. I opted to just use Google Site Kit / Analytics directly. While I had it installed, one small change I made was the alter our site meta data (added some, basically! We had none before, and changed the way our posts are titles on social media).

    However… two days later and my figures on Analytics tanked. On the 13th to 14th April – the days after my tinkering and the only ones since then that I can see on Analytics – we’re down a consistent 65-70% in terms of visitors. It’s even labelled as “Anomoly Detected”. Except that the Jetpack overview for the same dates disagrees with that, and is showing figures roughly inline with what we’d usually have.

    What could have broken with Site Kit when removing Monster? And any idea how I could fix it? Do I need to reinstall MonsterInsights and tinker with anything? Or remove and reinstall Site Kit?

    I’ve looked further and individual pages are getting views and being registered on Analytics, but their individual views are all down by huge percentages. The implication being that any tags / header code must still be in place otherwise at least some pages wouldn’t be registering traffic.

    Thanks in advance for any pointers.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Plugin Support James Osborne

    (@jamesosborne)

    Thanks for reaching out @iainpurdie, and providing details of what you were experiencing. While we’re unable to troubleshooting any issues with your JetPack or third party Analytics plugins, we can certainly look into any possible issues with how Site Kit and Analytics is currently implemented on your site.

    From reviewing your site I can see that you have consent mode active on your site, via a Site Kit configuration. This means that users must consent before they are tracked in Google Analytics. From reviewing your site, you don’t have a third party consent plugin active – meaning visitors are not being tracked!

    To troubleshoot this further, can you either disabled Consent Mode, or configure a third party consent plugin so users can provide consent? If you need help with this, let me know. If you do decide to disable Consent Mode, you can check that visits are firing for your site by using the Google Analytics real time reporting tool.

    You’ll find out more on consent mode by visiting this guide, and it’s a requirement in some regions as per Digital Markets Act (DMA) changes.

    Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

    Thread Starter IainPurdie

    (@iainpurdie)

    @jamesosborne Ah! You may very well have hit the nail on the head! Jetpack doesn’t care about consent mode, whereas Google certainly implied that it was pretty much a requirement due to my being located in the UK and with many EU readers (although 90% are US/UK so I would assume not relevant). It took ages to set up as well :-/

    I guess this now becomes a legislation issue. Am I better switching off consent mode and tracking 90% of my visitors and risking the wrath of the EU (on a website with 400 visitors a day…). _sigh_

    Plugin Support Adam Dunnage

    (@adamdunnage)

    @iainpurdie While the decision is ultimately yours, we would recommend that you follow the configuration steps in our consent mode guide and get this set up so that you are complying with the ?Digital Markets Act (DMA) changes.

    Is there anything else we can help you with on this?

    Thread Starter IainPurdie

    (@iainpurdie)

    Sorry, I meant to add to my last reply – is there any method of tracking based on geographical area within Analytics (ie ignoring DMA for those outside of the UK/EU)? Or of monitoring the fact that someone has visited (non-identifiable information) and nothing else so at least I know how many visitors I’ve had? I generally don’t care if they’re desktop, mobile, what their IP address is, etc – happy to let Google Ads figure that stuff out with its algorithms. Surely the fact that someone has arrived at a page isn’t something protected under DMA if Analytics doesn’t take in any further info?

    EDIT – actually… if I read the instructions you linked to (thank you) am I right to assume that it is the UK/EU ones who are being blocked which would explain why I am counting _some_ traffic… which will be those who gave consent _and_ those from outside of the DMA area?

    • This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by IainPurdie.
    Plugin Support Adam Dunnage

    (@adamdunnage)

    @iainpurdie

    actually… if I read the instructions you linked to (thank you) am I right to assume that it is the UK/EU ones who are being blocked which would explain why I am counting _some_ traffic… which will be those who gave consent _and_ those from outside of the DMA area?

    That is correct. Only UK/EMEA users will be automatically blocked and will need to give their consent before data is tracked. Any users outside of this area should still be tracked be default.

    I hope this helps to answer your question but let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.

    Thread Starter IainPurdie

    (@iainpurdie)

    Thanks to all for your responses. One last query! Is there any way to change the metric I’m viewing so that I can see how many visitors the site has? Surely (as I mentioned) noting that someone has visited the site isn’t a breach of DMA if no uniquely identifiable information is stored (or perhaps it is in which case I’m stuffed)? Is there just a view that I’ve not found on Analytics which takes this into account?

    If not then I’ll just have to estimate, I guess! Again, thank you for the responses and at least we seem to have pinpointed the issue.

    Plugin Support Adam Dunnage

    (@adamdunnage)

    @iainpurdie Unfortunately not within Site Kit. I’d also suggest checking this at the Analytics Help Center where you may be able to get some more information on the different Analytics stats and views you can see from your account.

    You are most welcome for the help and if you have any other Site Kit related questions then please do ask and we will be happy to help.

    Thread Starter IainPurdie

    (@iainpurdie)

    That’s fine. Thank you again for your help and at least I know where to look now.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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