6 ms·

If the difference between GA and Cloudfare is only bots, then the problem is pretty terrible.. "80% of my traffic is bots"

Tenoke 5y ago
The main difference is the execution of JS, less so the bots.
- lilyball 5y ago
  Very few non-bot visitors refuse to execute JS.
  - th3typh00n 5y ago
    Javascript in general? Sure. Telemetry-specific Javascript on the other hand is prevented from executing by many ad blockers, for good reasons.
    - lilyball 5y ago
      They don't block JavaScript, they block the loading of resources deemed to be for advertising. These are typically ads, but they can also be images, CSS, or other resources hosted by advertisers. Such blocking will also block any other kind of tracking done by the external domain. On the other hand, JavaScript inline in the page is almost never blocked by users.
  - Tenoke 5y ago
    According to this random first result on Google 42.7% of internet users use ad blockers (which is what would usually block the js), and the number increases the techier the audience is. https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users
  - BiteCode_dev 5y ago
    Browser addons, rss readers, cli tools like youtube dl, light clients like chat thumbnailers, reader modes and so on don't either. This can add up depending of your site, and have a different significance than scrappers. Ad blockers also often cut GA off.
  - swiley 5y ago
    I block all 3rd party scripts on my browser. The FSF has a patched version of Firefox called Icecat that's set up to do this easily.
__alexs 5y ago
I've worked on several large websites and that doesn't sound terribly high. Even of just clients that execute JS often 20% of the traffic was also bots.
reacharavindh 5y ago
I’d guess adblocker cuts off Google Analytics. I know mine does.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  Having close to 4 out of 5 visitors to an engineering blog running an ad blocker seems about right to me.
  - rchaud 5y ago
    If it's an engineering blog, the vistors might not even have JS enabled.
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    This is one of the reasons I abandoned Adwords. I sell to a technical audience and as far as I could tell most of my customers run an adblocker.
    - cyberge99 5y ago
      What do you use in it’s stead?
      - easrng 5y ago
        Not the person you replied to but try https://ethicalads.io https://ethicalads.io from Read The Docs. It's very non-intrusive and I suspect most people will whitelist it if you ask. (I whitelist it anyway)
acdha 5y ago
It also includes non-Chrome browsers which have tracking protection enabled by default, such as Firefox or Brave, and anyone who had installed an ad blocker or has common hosts blocked at the DNS level (which is a checkbox on a growing amount of consumer network hardware).
- jefftk 5y ago
  Firefox doesn't block analytics by default. To test: 1. Open devtools networking 2. Visit any site with analytics 3. See requests to https://www.google-analytics.com/j/collect https://www.google-analytics.com/j/collect?... (for GA), https://plausible.io/api/event https://plausible.io/api/event (for Plausible) etc EDIT: expanded this into a post https://jefftk.com/p/firefox-does-not-block-analytics-by-default https://jefftk.com/p/firefox-does-not-block-analytics-by-def...
  - acdha 5y ago
    Ah, you’re right: it prominently suggests enabling ETP but doesn’t do so without user opt-in.
- rchaud 5y ago
  I develop on FF, and I have to set an IP address exclusion rule in GA so that my local development testing doesn't inflate GA numbers. Google is a Mozilla donor and I don't think they'd like it if the browser blocked one of their major services. Ublock Origin will block GA and GTM (Google Tag Manager) however.

Tenoke 5y ago

The main difference is the execution of JS, less so the bots.

lilyball 5y ago
Very few non-bot visitors refuse to execute JS.
- th3typh00n 5y ago
  Javascript in general? Sure. Telemetry-specific Javascript on the other hand is prevented from executing by many ad blockers, for good reasons.
  - lilyball 5y ago
    They don't block JavaScript, they block the loading of resources deemed to be for advertising. These are typically ads, but they can also be images, CSS, or other resources hosted by advertisers. Such blocking will also block any other kind of tracking done by the external domain. On the other hand, JavaScript inline in the page is almost never blocked by users.
- Tenoke 5y ago
  According to this random first result on Google 42.7% of internet users use ad blockers (which is what would usually block the js), and the number increases the techier the audience is. https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users
- BiteCode_dev 5y ago
  Browser addons, rss readers, cli tools like youtube dl, light clients like chat thumbnailers, reader modes and so on don't either. This can add up depending of your site, and have a different significance than scrappers. Ad blockers also often cut GA off.
- swiley 5y ago
  I block all 3rd party scripts on my browser. The FSF has a patched version of Firefox called Icecat that's set up to do this easily.

__alexs 5y ago

I've worked on several large websites and that doesn't sound terribly high. Even of just clients that execute JS often 20% of the traffic was also bots.

reacharavindh 5y ago

I’d guess adblocker cuts off Google Analytics. I know mine does.

ashtonkem 5y ago
Having close to 4 out of 5 visitors to an engineering blog running an ad blocker seems about right to me.
- rchaud 5y ago
  If it's an engineering blog, the vistors might not even have JS enabled.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  This is one of the reasons I abandoned Adwords. I sell to a technical audience and as far as I could tell most of my customers run an adblocker.
  - cyberge99 5y ago
    What do you use in it’s stead?
    - easrng 5y ago
      Not the person you replied to but try https://ethicalads.io https://ethicalads.io from Read The Docs. It's very non-intrusive and I suspect most people will whitelist it if you ask. (I whitelist it anyway)

acdha 5y ago

It also includes non-Chrome browsers which have tracking protection enabled by default, such as Firefox or Brave, and anyone who had installed an ad blocker or has common hosts blocked at the DNS level (which is a checkbox on a growing amount of consumer network hardware).

jefftk 5y ago
Firefox doesn't block analytics by default. To test: 1. Open devtools networking 2. Visit any site with analytics 3. See requests to https://www.google-analytics.com/j/collect https://www.google-analytics.com/j/collect?... (for GA), https://plausible.io/api/event https://plausible.io/api/event (for Plausible) etc EDIT: expanded this into a post https://jefftk.com/p/firefox-does-not-block-analytics-by-default https://jefftk.com/p/firefox-does-not-block-analytics-by-def...
- acdha 5y ago
  Ah, you’re right: it prominently suggests enabling ETP but doesn’t do so without user opt-in.
rchaud 5y ago
I develop on FF, and I have to set an IP address exclusion rule in GA so that my local development testing doesn't inflate GA numbers. Google is a Mozilla donor and I don't think they'd like it if the browser blocked one of their major services. Ublock Origin will block GA and GTM (Google Tag Manager) however.