Why suddenly change to Google analytics method of counting page views?

[Ailey]

As the title said, I don't know about others but it looks quite messed up for me, I update my web page every Friday, how is it possible the page views on Monday to be higher than weekend? And the difference are huge, including the trend of statistics, even the date is outdated, seriously?

I don't see it as more accurate for my case. 

[Disey42]

My page count has receded from hundreds down to single digits overnight. What has changed?

[Bernadette3]

Hi @Disey42 Your previous traffic stats were not inaccurate it just used a different counting methodology focusing on the number of times your site has been served / rendered, rather than the number of actual users that viewed your site. The newer metrics are more reflective of actual usage and a better point of comparison.The new Insights utilizes front-end tracking where a website visitor's browser pings Weebly servers to report usage. This is the same methodology used by Google Analytics, and is designed to handle granular calculations. While this methodology has certain limitations as tracking can be disabled by an ad blocker, it is much closer to numbers rendered by Google Analytics, and is much less susceptible to overcounting.

[Ailey]

But if that's the case, I asked some of friends help viewing my page for me to see if the statistics work, but the statistics did not show it and remain zero, is that not considered as actual views?

And the whole statistics does not make sense at all, try to imagine, I'm a web novel writer, usually update my chapters every Friday, which is why the page views for Friday and Saturday was the highest in the previous system, but after changed to Google analytics method, it became really low, some even shows zero views, while the day when I did not update anything at all have more views.

I seriously don't see this as relevant.

[SGVCW]

Thank God. I thought I was losing my mind, seeing low insights. But this seems like a rediculous method for counting page views. If my readers can use ad blockers and I suspect many do, then my page views are skewed anyway and in a bad way. I had a decent response to stories posted October 1 and my page views are at ZERO. ZERO!!!!!

[greekguy]

OK that was a shock....

Bernadette please humor me...

Hi @Disey42 Your previous traffic stats were not inaccurate it just used a different counting methodology focusing on the number of times your site has been served / rendered, rather than the number of actual users that viewed your site. The newer metrics are more reflective of actual usage and a better point of comparison.

I dont understand the difference...how is "being served/rendered" different than "actual usage". Why arent those the same thing? Either what you say is correct, which makes your old way of counting wrong which means you guys were making a mistake all this time...or it's something useless, which makes this change totally useless. How is this new way of counting insights different without the old way being wrong??? 

The new Insights utilizes front-end tracking where a website visitor's browser pings Weebly servers to report usage. This is the same methodology used by Google Analytics, and is designed to handle granular calculations.

Excuse me but only tech people understand such details. Customers and simple folk dont understand technicalities...we understand "it works" or "it doesnt work". Which one is it? And why is Google analytics the standard for Weebly? Have you guys thought that maybe YOUR way of doing things is better for YOUR clientelle and that if anyone wishes to change his standard he can easily revert to Google analytics by himself? 

While this methodology has certain limitations as tracking can be disabled by an ad blocker, it is much closer to numbers rendered by Google Analytics, and is much less susceptible to overcounting.

Again the same question...why is Google the standard here?....i have google analytics on my site....i never use them...it makes me feel more stupid than a 5 year old and i have to spend time calculating instead of taking a look (like weebly) and then going back to my business....it seems like only tech people can actually understand it which makes sense for a huge web company like Google, not to mention their other standards for always changing their ways so that simple flok cannot understand what they're actually doing.

Apologies for the complain to aynone who is probably more tech-savy than I am and might think this is not even a problem for them...but I feel this is a problem for a lot of people. Take a step back to simpler ways guys....not more, not more detailed, not more complex...simpler tech. Help us out, dont make us jump higher just because there might be a higher standard out there.

Thanks.

[Sundownalpacas]

@Bernadette I just want to say I think something is still not quite right with the Weebly stats. @whitemonkey and I did some testing. He was on my site with no ad blocker and he accepts cookies and it did not register with Weebly stats. I compared to my GA and his hits were there. I know we posted this in another thread. His stats seem to be good on his site with Weebly.  Mine sometimes registers 0 when I know that there were people on my site? 

Just an FYI

[Adam7]

I'm not sure when @whitemonkey did his tests, though there was a bug that was fixed this morning which was affecting stats. It wasn't clear to me from the bug description if it was purely a display issue or not, though, or whether that's a specifically what you saw. 

[Ailey]

I very doubt if that's the main issue right now, the issue right now is why suddenly change to the Google analytics standard ? When it really doesn't seems to be any more accurate than the previous method, or it might be possible that we are too low tech to understand it.

Furthermore, you guys did this changes without any earlier notice, we can see that from the reaction we have above, although there's a possibility you guys did make a notice but we are too blind to notice it. 

[amj2]

Hi,  I have also seen a big loss of uniques and page views from thousands to only double digits.  I have made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and if Weebly doesn't change it back, I would recommend people to do the same.  Seems like the tech support at Weebly doesn't want to change it back to the original analytics version.  I have complained twice to support but to no avail.  I feel like they are falsely advertising about having "real-time" analytics like other website hosting companies have so I'm complaining about false advertisement and for experimenting with customers important websites that we rely on.

[Magoo]

Write a review about Weebly's useless website traffic data if they don't change it back, I intend to. You can do it here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Weebly,+Inc/@37.7753701,-122.4195964,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0...

[Bernadette3]

@Ailey When did you do your testing? This update came out in batches and I believe the final group of accounts are now seeing what some others on this thread have been noticing for the past month. For example, @sundownalpaca, didn't we have screenshots of your stats that showed zero, but then the next time we checked the dates showed data? Am I remembering that properly? 

[Ailey]

I tested yesterday a few minutes after I put on this thread with two different devices, my friend viewed the page for ten times.

Although I think the date might be a problem as well. 

[Sundownalpacas]

@Bernadette  Yes that time it did. Then later it went back to 0. I did a comparison for yesterday since they fixed a bug just for general numbers. They seem to be closer.

[Bernadette3]

That's encouraging. I know we've been getting a lot of contacts about this and there are several teams that are investigating. 

[Magoo]

Can you change back to the old system of counting page visits please?

The new system is complete rubbish due to the use of adblockers corrupting the results. If we wanted to use the useless Google Analytics system then we would go to Google Analytics.

My site used to show between 300-1000 visits a day, but with Weebly's new pathetically useless method it shows between 3-17. At least give us the choice between the good old sytem and your new crap system please. Currently Weebly is complete **bleep** when analysing websites stats - RETURN TO THE OLD SYSTEM PLEASE.

[BJ5]

If the old system was only higher because it was bots and spiders I don't know what benefit you'd be getting, other than know how much search engines and automations are visiting your site. It sucks how much browsers block cookie-based tracking, but I'd rather know what people are doing on mys ite even if the numbers are lower. That's my two cents, anyway.

[whitemonkey]

Good call @BJ   !!!!!   @Ailey  @Magoo @Bernadette 

people want high numbers to boast about rather than the truth.

Funny but true story:

I am a traveller...   i met some dudes   who boasts they had 92K  friends on FB      and u think   hmmmm thats good... if i let these dudes stay at my hostel for free, they'll quote my hostel on their FB post... I'll get so much publicity and some paying customers... but what u dont think about is that 91,800  of these 92k will never travel  and never visit your hostel   and dt care about it anyway..   and the 200 travellers that see the post  with the said hostel mentioned... maybe, just maybe, you'lll get 5 people passing thru ur town.  and maybe just 1 will stay at the said hostel..    

numbers are a fools game   

and if u have a store/ecommerce site, as i like to tell @Sundownalpacas  , the proof is in the pudding.... 

its like when a company has their home page set as the opening page on all PC browsers.. so when all their staff turn up each day, they switch on their PC  and ping    750 unique   'fake' to 'usless' to 'meaningless' hits     oh lets have some of these.....

))

[Magoo]

Actually the real reason is so ad blockers don't corrupt the stats to the point that they are meaningless. Perhaps you should think a little more before making your idiotic false assumptions about other people whitemonkey, & your arguments are equally bad & completely unrelated - go & troll somewhere else please.

If Weebly users wanted corrupted stats they can always use Google Analytics. Even Google admits it doesn't use it's own Analytics data in it's search engine rankings. Why? Because the data is useless.

Weebly's 'Compare Your Data' graph doesn't even load. The new system is useless, return to the old system asap please.

[Ailey]

Seriously, I wasn't plan to continue to arguing about this anymore but since you mentioned it...

If the previous page views is just fake as you said, it would not be a big issue, but for those creator with a fixed number of viewers group and check their page views every half an hour, they will at least know how many real viewers they have everyday. For example, I posted a new content this Saturday and get a lot of feedback on my discord but the statistics shows nothing. 

And have a look at the picture I attached (yes, I'm a free user, so what ) the statistics that peaked is usually the number I'll get when I posted a new content, but sadly I did not post anything that day, so it is impossible that it will peaked at the day I totally did not publish anything but dropped harshly at the day I actually updated something.

And look at the graph again, you can see that it is no longer a live statistics, it only updated daily. The compare graph would take a very long time to show up as well.

So, do not assume that everyone is as brainless as what you said when about statistics, as we do not only depends on the mere statistics to determine the range of our real viewers. Thanks  

[Chrysbeats]

I, too, went from over 1000 views per month to single digits. I shared a post via Mail Chimp at midnight and even have a comment from the post after midnight and yet my site stats show 0 views for the day. I personally the link to several people who read it. Something is wrong. It is a drastic change. I am fine with not showing bots, but I've lost count of actual page views.