Discrepancy between Google analytics and Alexa

[prsntsnh]

I understand that the data on Google Analytics and Alexa would probably differ a little bit, but in our case, we see a substantial difference between the reporting parameters between these two. For example, the Alexa data shows that the number of page views per visit is approximately 11 pages whereas Google gives a figure closer to 5 pages/visit. The avg time spent on a visit is approximately 15 minutes on Alexa but closer to 4 mins on Google Analytics!

Any inputs on why this huge discrepancy would exist?

TIA

Asif

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi Asif,

It's fairly simple, Alexa is using a really low sample of users to find out how many visitors you have. People using the Alexa toolbar are measured as they visit pages. They probably visit by accident more pages on your site and as the data is extrapolated that would be the reason the data is so off. In my experience Alexa visitor data is a good guideline to see how much people visited the site compared to others but for high traffic sites the data is off by millions.

[MoosaHemani]

If you ask me, I would say Alexa and GA are not slightly different but in many cases you will see major differences… more then you are facing for your websites.

I believe you should relay on your GA data as they give the exact information where as Alexa usually give a guess version of it.

Hope this helps!

[PaddyDisplays]

I'll  2nd what Martijn is saying, Alexa can be hugely inaccurate, and the smaller your site is (traffic wise) the more inaccurate it is.  If you have Alexa installed on your browser then you are boosting the stats on alexa as you spend more time on your site than anyone else.

I only use Alexa an odd time to get a very rough idea of competitors traffic.