Bug Referrers always zero and time on site gives strange numbers

[webrunner]

Please take a look at my installation.
The referrers are always 0 (zero) and the tima and avarage time on site gives very strange numbers.

Another question:
Pageviews age 4 times as high as in Google analytics: so what should i believe?
Visits are approx 40% as in Google analytics.

 

[Pandemikk]

The way average time is being calculated is flawed, I agree. I've already fixed the way it's done after noticing this myself a few days ago. I can hotfix this on your site should you wish.

I'm looking into referrers, I use the standards means of detecting them so I guess I'm going to have to look into seeing if there is a more reliable way to determine them.

Pageviews by bots are not tracked by GA, this may be more desirable in retrospect. What do you think? The reason pageviews aren't recorded by GA is because they don't execute javascript whereas vBanalytics tracks them because we don't rely on javascript but instead PHP.

40% less? A visit is defined as according to your cookie timeout setting. The lower this setting the higher your visits will be. We have to use this setting because vB purges sessions older than this amount which would skew your data. GA, on the other hand, uses 30 minutes.

I hope you don't mind me asking you a question, what's your stance on bot issues? Track them, don't track them?

 

[Ozzy47]

IMO I would make it a option, to track the bots or not, if it's feasible.

 

[Pandemikk]

I see your total time is very off. I have an idea what may be causing this and, with your permission, I can hotfix this on your site.

 

[webrunner]

sure, go ahead, but will it stay fixed when i upload an update?

I think bots should be tracked, but if possible make it visible. So show the numbers of visits and pageviews by people and by bots stacked in the same graph (if that is possible).
I know that vb already identifies the bots.

It would be even cooler if you added the difference between members (logged in), visitors (not logged in) and bots.
That way we get a real grip on what is actually happening on the site regarding traffic and pageviews.

---------- Post added at 00:49 ---------- Previous post was at 00:44 ----------

Oh and yes, i have the cookie timeout set to 900 seconds so that could explain some of the difference in visits together with bot traffic (Google, Bing and baidu are constantly on my site).

 

[Pandemikk]

Hmm. Your idea about bots will take some extra work and thought. It should be ready for 1.2.x

The fixes I will apply have already been fixed for the gold release. They were related to pages (only third-party add-ons I believe) that failed to define this_script. No first activity was tracked with these pages- only last activity which meant that the total time for those sessions were very large.

 

[webrunner]

That could be cause by vbarcade

---------- Post added at 00:20 ---------- Previous post was at 00:19 ----------

And sorry for being demanding... i am just used to a lot of stats

 

[Pandemikk]

On the contrary, I appreciate your honest feedback and reports. They help me make vBAnalytics, a desperately need mod for vB, better with each release.

As far as your referrals, I've confirmed that this is not an issue in the software and thus must be something on your site interfering. With your permission I'd like to find out exactly what that is.

 

[webrunner]

sure, as long as you don't break the site

 

[Pandemikk]

Oops.

I've confirmed that referrers also work on your site. Sadly, it just seems that your site is not getting referrers. Keep in mind a referrer is only when a user lands on your site from an outside source.

 

[webrunner]

i know for a fact that it does.... i can see them in Google analytics....

 

[Pandemikk]

Hello,

I've made a change, please observe referrals over the next 24 hours and tell me if you they start showing up for you.

 

[webrunner]

OK, i will

 

[Pandemikk]

Marking this as fixed as all issues have been fixed in v1.1.3

 

[webrunner]

agreed, it is registering referrals now.
Sorry i didn't mention it earlier...