Creepy Google Analytics Experience

A few days ago, I got an email from GA about Google Apps or some such. I haven't used GA in years, so I thought I'd log in to my old account and delete whatever was in there. It showed one domain that I was forced to surrender because of a cease and desist letter, so I haven't done anything with that domain in a long time.

And now for the creepy part...

Just as I was ready to delete the site, I noticed that GA is showing traffic data for this domain for the first time in several months (according to the graph). At first I thought maybe someone ripped the content from my old site (maybe just before I took the site down) and didn't bother removing the GA code. I went to the site, viewed the source on all pages, and there's NO analytics code!

How is it that traffic data for a site that I no longer operate is showing up in my GA account when this site doesn't even use GA?

GA is crappy, thus, you should only use it together with a server-side package and not to give too much thought about this strange phenomenon.
Posted via Mobile Device

Yes, I'm well aware that it's crappy, which is why I haven't used it in years. This experience just confirms its crappiness.

I hope that it isn't happening to other people, and if it is, they may not even know it, which is cause for some concern. For example, if one were to sell a site on Flippa that was tracked using GA (as is the expectation of many Flippa buyers), then it might be possible for the seller to continue viewing traffic data long after the domain has changed hands, even if the buyer removed the GA code.

I would be interested in knowing if any Flippa sellers here have used GA on the sites that they've sold. If so, and you did NOT delete the sites in your GA account after the sale, are you still able to see traffic data for those domains?

maybe the GA code is used somewhere else in your projects..

What alternatives are there if GA is crappy?

not sure if something like this works?


As well, I've had it happen before where someone got a hold of my GA code - I think the purpose was just to get my attention looking in on google analytics to see who it was (the site was just a bunch of ads for webmaster stuff) - however it did get my attention / made me look at the site (and if I really cared about my analytics kind of screwed them up)

simplebeans said:

Another GA mystery, my guess is there is some GA code somewhere!

Click to expand...

qxxxp said:

maybe the GA code is used somewhere else in your projects..

Click to expand...

There's no GA code in any of my other projects. That's why this is so puzzling.

duimstra said:

What alternatives are there if GA is crappy?

Click to expand...

I'm using Piwik on one of my sites, and I like it so far. It's a free, open-source analytics application. For sites on Linux servers, I'm using Awstats (comes with cPanel), which is adequate. For sites on Windows servers, I'm using SmarterStats, which is nicer looking and has more features than Awstats. The safest thing to do in terms of data privacy is to roll your own analytics app. Someday I'll get around to doing that.

Fwiffo said:

not sure if something like this works?

Code:

http://www.goosh.co.uk/search-engine-optimisation/google-analytics-bombing/

As well, I've had it happen before where someone got a hold of my GA code - I think the purpose was just to get my attention looking in on google analytics to see who it was (the site was just a bunch of ads for webmaster stuff) - however it did get my attention / made me look at the site (and if I really cared about my analytics kind of screwed them up)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the article, Fwiffo. I don't think it applies to my situation, but it was an interesting read nonetheless, and yet another reason to stay away from GA. The latest issue of 2600 also has an article about GA and how easily it can be abused.

Off-topic, but...there's an article in there about FB, too -- "How to Create Mass Hysteria on a College Campus Using [Fac3b00k]". (The mag is available at Borders or Barnes & Noble if interested.)