What’s Going On With Google Analytics Lately?
Strange GA Issue #1
Today, I recieved the following email from a client:
Hi Nicki,
When I look at the web site with IE8 built-in developer tools, it shows the error ‘_gat’ is undefined when viewing on the script tab.
After brainstorming with some of the developers here, we soon realized the problem was with Google Analytics. The page, it seems, is loading too fast! That seems to be the bulk of the issue, coupled with the fact that Internet Explorer 8 has been released. It might be a good idea to start dropping IE 6 for good, with two other versions of IE available.
Strange GA Issue #2
Last week, I met with another client to do some Google Analytics training. One of my favorite GA tools is the site overlay: which shows how people behave on your website.
However, when showing the client just how cool site overlays are, GA decided against showing us the overlay. All we could see was their website – no overlay. Checking severall days later proved to bring up the overlay correctly. I’ve seen this happen before with other sites – where GA is finnicky about what it shows. What gives??
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 am
Thanks for playing detective Nicki – good work. I vote for dropping IE6….can I vote more than once??? (fair disclosure – I work with Nicki and she’s terrific!)