WP Statistics and Google Analytics

Resolved rolandmhorn
(@rolandmhorn)

7 months, 2 weeks ago

Hi there,

I have often read that WPStatistics generally shows significantly more visitors than Google Analytics. However, the difference is huge. While Google Analytics shows significantly less than 100 visitors per day, WPStatistics shows between 2,000 and 8,000 visitors per day (and rising). Can the difference be explained by WP Statistics recording numerous bot visits? I would like to know how many “human” visitors I actually have each day and fear that Google Analytics is much closer to the truth here than WPStatistics. Am I wright?

Often there are visits from Brasilia, Vietnamese and Turkey Servers, up to ten in the same time, by the Turkish ones often all from Istanbul.

Can I do anything in the Setting of WPStatistics to exclude bots. (Not countries, but Bots.) What Bots I have to enter in “Custom Bot Exclusions” and “Robot View Threshold”?

I’m looking forward to your answer.

Greetings

Roland

The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

Mehmet
(@gandomi)

7 months, 2 weeks ago

Hi Roland,

You’re absolutely right that a large difference in numbers usually means WP Statistics is also recording a lot of automated or bot visits that Google Analytics automatically filters out.

You can fine-tune this in WP Statistics > Settings > Filtering & Exceptions > Robot Exclusions.
From there, you can enable and customise bot filtering. Right below that section, you’ll also find the “Robot View Threshold” option, which helps you define how strictly bots are detected and excluded.

We’ve documented this feature here for more detailed guidance:
Robot Exclusions – WP Statistics Documentation

And if you want to expand your bot exclusion list, you can check this full list of known bot signatures (from the Matomo project):
List of Known Bots

Once you adjust these settings, your stats will more closely reflect real human visitors, and you’ll get a much clearer comparison to Google Analytics.

Kind regards,
Mehmet

Thread Starter rolandmhorn
(@rolandmhorn)

7 months, 1 week ago

Dear Mehmet,

thank your for your answer.

In nowhave entered the bots from the Motomo-List in the field “Robot Exclusions” and yesterday WP Statistic shows me an value about 351 vistitors- a value, which can be correct. But today there are show 1705 visitors and at the moment 102 online visitors simultaneously, which rarely can’t be true.

Many “visitors” came from Brazilian or Vietnamese Servers at the same time, allegedly from different browsers and devices. That’s is a clue of bots, isn’t it?

What can I do further for reduce the bot accesses? What value is recommended for the field “Robot View Threshold”? I first have enter “100” – later reduced to “50” – despite it I have the visitor-value mentioned above.

What can I do?

Greetings
Roland
Mehmet
(@gandomi)

7 months, 1 week ago
Hi Roland,

First of all, apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Regarding your question about the “Robot View Threshold”:
- This number defines how many rapid visits from the same IP or User-Agent must occur before WP Statistics considers it a bot.
- For small to medium sites, a value between 10 and 30 is usually sufficient.
- Values like 50 or 100 are often too high, since bots typically make more than 30 requests within a few seconds.
- Therefore, we recommend setting the threshold to something like 20.
Additionally, to reduce actual bot traffic (not just filter it in stats), it’s a good idea to use a security plugin or firewall. Some effective options are:
- Wordfence with the Rate Limiting option enabled.
- Cloudflare Free Plan with Bot Fight Mode activated.
These tools help block bots before they even reach your site.

This documentation can guide you further on rate limiting in Wordfence:
https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/rate-limiting/

Kind regards,
Mehmet
Thread Starter rolandmhorn
(@rolandmhorn)

7 months, 1 week ago

Hi Mehmet,

I’ve set the “Robot View Threshold” to “20” and installed the Wordfence-Plugin with the recommended settings for rate-limiting. I’ve still over 2000 visitors counted from WP Statistics daily , but under 100 by Google Analytics. I’ve set “Robot View Threshold” to “10” – but it is still the same! What can I still do?

Greetings
Roland

Thread Starter rolandmhorn
(@rolandmhorn)

7 months, 1 week ago

I don’t like Cloudflare, cause the robot-test let wait the potentiell visitors, an by a couple of sites I self want to visit, I don’t get access, allegedly cause my ip-adress is blocked.

Mehmet
(@gandomi)

7 months, 1 week ago

Hi Roland,

If you’d like, you can also reach out directly to our support team via [email protected].
We’ll be able to assist you faster and more effectively there.

Additionally, you can try one more option:
Go to Statistics > Settings > Filtering and Exceptions > Excluded IP Address List,
and add any IP addresses that show a large number of visits within a short time period.
Excluding these will help make your visitor data much more accurate and closer to what you see in Google Analytics.

Kind regards,
Mehmet

Mehmet
(@gandomi)

7 months ago

Hi Roland,

I’ve received your email via our support system and have sent you a message there. Please check your inbox, and if you receive my email, kindly reply to that ticket so we can continue the conversation directly there.

Kind regards,
Mehmet

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘WP Statistics and Google Analytics’ is closed to new replies.

Tags