My original post from a few days ago has been removed and my whole long-standing NutritionChat account was deleted !
I guess my original post a few days ago was a little too flambouyant and spam-like, with several emojis!
My apologies to the mods. 🙏
Users showing in forum stats but not Google Analytics
This seemed to start a few months ago, when I saw 40+ active online users, with corresponding 'viewing' totals against various topics. My forum is only very small, so I thought it had been shared somewhere online and got extra attention that day.
But it's still happening intermittently - google analytics is only recording ~10-20 different users per day (maximum), but the forum stats for online users often reads 40-60 at any one time, along with the 'viewing' number against topics. And this continues for hours, with zero posting activity.
This wasn't happening 1 year ago, so I'm wondering if my site has been discovered by new AI bots, trawling the web for user discussions in forums ? But weird that it's been happening for several months.
Thoughts ? Anyone else seeing similar?
Hi,
Yes, this situation is quite common, and there are a few possible explanations for why wpForo’s online user stats show significantly more users than Google Analytics:Possible Reasons:
1. Bot and Crawler Traffic
• Many bots, scrapers, and AI crawlers visit forums to collect data, and some of them may not be detected by Google Analytics.
• wpForo’s online user tracking detects all visitors, including bots, while Google Analytics filters out many of them.
• Some AI crawlers (like OpenAI’s or Common Crawl) have increased activity in recent months, which could explain the change.
2. Session Handling Differences
• wpForo uses PHP session tracking, counting users as “online” based on session activity. Sessions might last longer than Google Analytics’ tracking method.
• Google Analytics counts unique visitors differently, often discarding short visits and bot traffic.
3. Ad Blockers and Privacy Settings
• Many users have ad blockers or privacy-focused browsers that block Google Analytics but not wpForo’s session tracking.
• This could make it seem like users are online in wpForo but not appearing in Google Analytics.
That's great, sofy, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed and comprehensive reply. 🙂
