Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites

• Published in: PloS one 2022-05, Vol.17 (5), p.e0268212-e0268212
• Main Authors: Jansen, Bernard J, Jung, Soon-Gyo, Salminen, Joni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Business intelligence; Competition; Computer and Information Sciences; Data collection; Data entry; Digital marketing; Engineering and Technology; Industry standards; Intelligence; Intelligence (information); Internet service providers; Mathematical analysis; Media planning & buying; Methods; Normal distribution; Online advertising; Physical Sciences; Research methodology; Social aspects; Social networks; Social Sciences; Statistical analysis; User generated content; Web analytics; Web browsers; Web sites; Websites
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268212

This research compares four standard analytics metrics from Google Analytics with SimilarWeb using one year's average monthly data for 86 websites from 26 countries and 19 industry verticals. The results show statistically significant differences between the two services for total visits, unique visitors, bounce rates, and average session duration. Using Google Analytics as the baseline, SimilarWeb average values were 19.4% lower for total visits, 38.7% lower for unique visitors, 25.2% higher for bounce rate, and 56.2% higher for session duration. The website rankings between SimilarWeb and Google Analytics for all metrics are significantly correlated, especially for total visits and unique visitors. The accuracy/inaccuracy of the metrics from both services is discussed from the vantage of the data collection methods employed. In the absence of a gold standard, combining the two services is a reasonable approach, with Google Analytics for onsite and SimilarWeb for network metrics. Finally, the differences between SimilarWeb and Google Analytics measures are systematic, so with Google Analytics metrics from a known site, one can reasonably generate the Google Analytics metrics for related sites based on the SimilarWeb values. The implications are that SimilarWeb provides conservative analytics in terms of visits and visitors relative to those of Google Analytics, and both tools can be utilized in a complementary fashion in situations where site analytics is not available for competitive intelligence and benchmarking analysis.