{"id":317,"date":"2022-05-31T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T06:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quecst.qcri.org\/blog\/?p=317"},"modified":"2022-05-31T09:00:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T06:00:40","slug":"measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Measuring<\/p>\n

Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites<\/a>This research compares four standard analytics metrics from Google Analytics with SimilarWeb using one year\u2019s average monthly data for 86 websites from 26 countries and 19 industry verticals.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Read article:\u00a0Jansen, B. J., Jung, S.G., and Salminen, J. (2022)\u00a0Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0PLoS ONE<\/u>. 17(5): e0268212.\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0268212<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websitesThis research compares four standard analytics metrics from Google Analytics with SimilarWeb using one year\u2019s average monthly data for 86 websites from 26 countries and 19 industry verticals. The results show statistically significant differences between the two services… Continue reading Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[56],"yoast_head":"\nMeasuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites - Team Acua<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites - Team Acua\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websitesThis research compares four standard analytics metrics from Google Analytics with SimilarWeb using one year\u2019s average monthly data for 86 websites from 26 countries and 19 industry verticals. The results show statistically significant differences between the two services… Continue reading Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Team Acua\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-31T06:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/quecst.qcri.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/analytics02.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Jansen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Jansen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim Jansen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e3bb7a0b58349e548e8940716694c215\"},\"headline\":\"Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-31T06:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-31T06:00:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/\"},\"wordCount\":289,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"web analytics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"E-commerce\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acua.qcri.org\/blog\/measuring-user-interactions-with-websites-a-comparison-of-two-industry-standard-analytics-approaches-using-data-of-86-websites\/\",\"name\":\"Measuring user interactions with websites: A comparison of two industry standard analytics approaches using data of 86 websites - 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