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Google Analytics location issue

Question asked by Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018
Latest reply on Jan 23, 2018 by Sanford Whiteman

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I'm not entirely sure if this is a Marketo issue, but I have a hunch it is and wondering if anyone else has this issue, and how to solve for it.

We have a disproportionate number of website visitors showing up with Portland, OR as their location - about 1/3 of our total site visitors. I know our account contacts have always been based out of Portland and we use Munchkin tracking on our website, so I'm thinking there is a connection, I just don't know what that is, or how to fix our GA reports from being impacted.

Any ideas?

Katie DenHollander Jan 23, 2018 5:58 AM

Correct Answer

Hi Sanford,

Thank you for all your troubleshooting, but I've figured it out this morning. I cross referenced the Portland Users by "Browser" and it showed all users using the browser "Smarshbot". Smarsh is the compliance software we use to track emails and our website. It crawls our website every day looking for changes, which must be causing this issue.

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Sanford Whiteman Jan 22, 2018 2:30 PM

Munchkin doesn't impact the location reported by GA in any way. They're 2 different analytics paths (with different events and session logic) and unless you're tying them together deliberately, they don't share data.

When you call these "disproportionate" what is this based on? Are you sure you don't just have 1/3 of your visits from internal users and need to exempt them? Is the IP address in Portland, OR the IP of your office there?

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Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 22, 2018 2:42 PM

Hi Sanford,

In the past week, we have had just over 3000 visitors to our website, and 1,338 came from Portland, OR. The next two highest cities are 500 and 250, both of which we have offices nearby, and a large population of clients.

The closest office we have to Portland, OR is in Wyoming, and we don't have a large number of clients there, so there is nothing I can think of as to why we would have 1/3 of our visitors coming from there. It's also a 99% bounce rate, which is fishy.

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Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018 2:45 PM

The closest office we have to Portland, OR is in Wyoming

OK, then "our account contacts have always been based out of Portland" doesn't really have any bearing, does it?

I can tell you this isn't Munchkin telling GA where the visits are coming from.

What's an example IP address? Sure this isn't a spider or mail scanner?

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Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 22, 2018 3:03 PM

Sorry, what I meant by Account contacts is the people at Marketo that we work with have always been based out of Portland, not our personal contacts in our database.

I'm not sure how to access the IP addresses in GA, sorry, not a regular user of that system, I was just brought in because of this weird issue, so I'll need to get back to you on that.

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Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018 3:10 PM

Are the entry pages for these visitors all URLs that appeared in emails this week? If so, it's a mail scanner (which operates as a headless browser).

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Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 22, 2018 3:18 PM

It looks like the entry pages are articles we've shared on LinkedIn...

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Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018 3:21 PM

And the IP(s)?

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Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 23, 2018 5:47 AM

I'm being told we can't get IP addresses out of GA due to privacy. Is that your experience? Sorry if this is basic knowledge, I don't know anything about google analytics.

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Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 23, 2018 5:58 AM

Hi Sanford,

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Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 23, 2018 7:24 AM

Makes sense, search crawler or security scanner fits the behavior.

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Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 23, 2018 8:37 AM

P.S. They should have a way to exclude analytics libs from crawling (it's strange for them to not exclude GA by default, Munchkin I can understand).

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11 Replies

Sanford Whiteman Jan 22, 2018 2:30 PM
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Munchkin doesn't impact the location reported by GA in any way. They're 2 different analytics paths (with different events and session logic) and unless you're tying them together deliberately, they don't share data.

When you call these "disproportionate" what is this based on? Are you sure you don't just have 1/3 of your visits from internal users and need to exempt them? Is the IP address in Portland, OR the IP of your office there?
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- Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 22, 2018 2:42 PM
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  Hi Sanford,
  
  In the past week, we have had just over 3000 visitors to our website, and 1,338 came from Portland, OR. The next two highest cities are 500 and 250, both of which we have offices nearby, and a large population of clients.
  
  The closest office we have to Portland, OR is in Wyoming, and we don't have a large number of clients there, so there is nothing I can think of as to why we would have 1/3 of our visitors coming from there. It's also a 99% bounce rate, which is fishy.
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  - Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018 2:45 PM
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    The closest office we have to Portland, OR is in Wyoming
    OK, then "our account contacts have always been based out of Portland" doesn't really have any bearing, does it?
    
    I can tell you this isn't Munchkin telling GA where the visits are coming from.
    
    What's an example IP address? Sure this isn't a spider or mail scanner?
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    - Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 22, 2018 3:03 PM
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      Sorry, what I meant by Account contacts is the people at Marketo that we work with have always been based out of Portland, not our personal contacts in our database.
      
      I'm not sure how to access the IP addresses in GA, sorry, not a regular user of that system, I was just brought in because of this weird issue, so I'll need to get back to you on that.
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      - Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018 3:10 PM
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        Are the entry pages for these visitors all URLs that appeared in emails this week? If so, it's a mail scanner (which operates as a headless browser).
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        Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 22, 2018 3:18 PM
        Mark Correct
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        It looks like the entry pages are articles we've shared on LinkedIn...
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        Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 22, 2018 3:21 PM
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        And the IP(s)?
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        Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 23, 2018 5:47 AM
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        I'm being told we can't get IP addresses out of GA due to privacy. Is that your experience? Sorry if this is basic knowledge, I don't know anything about google analytics.
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        Katie DenHollander @ Sanford Whiteman on Jan 23, 2018 5:58 AM
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        Hi Sanford,
        
        Thank you for all your troubleshooting, but I've figured it out this morning. I cross referenced the Portland Users by "Browser" and it showed all users using the browser "Smarshbot". Smarsh is the compliance software we use to track emails and our website. It crawls our website every day looking for changes, which must be causing this issue.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
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        Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 23, 2018 7:24 AM
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        Makes sense, search crawler or security scanner fits the behavior.
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        Sanford Whiteman @ Katie DenHollander on Jan 23, 2018 8:37 AM
        Mark Correct
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        P.S. They should have a way to exclude analytics libs from crawling (it's strange for them to not exclude GA by default, Munchkin I can understand).
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