• Home
  • Contact
  • FAQs
    • What is Webcomics.com?
    • Member Benefits
    • How To Post an Article or News Item
    • How to Post a Webcomic on the List
    • How to Post a Comic
    • Terms of Service
  • Forums
  • WebComics List
  • Benefits
    • Print Vendors: Get multiple quotes
    • Banner stand: Discount
    • Consultation discount
    • “How To Make Webcomics” book: discount
    • “Webcomics Handbook”: discount
    • ALL benefits
  • My Account
    • Welcome
    • What is Webcomics.com?
    • My Subscription
    • Join us!
  • Account
  • Membership List
Twitter Email RSS

Webcomics.com

How To Make WebComics

Webcomics Handbook

‹ Instagram for Dummies Harvey Awards nominations are open ›

Why your huge traffic spike… isn’t

You don’t need a subscription to read today’s Friday Archive Dive!

Even if you’re not a member of the site, you can read the entire post, which originally ran March 20, 2014. If you’ve ever been curious about the kind of information, tutorials and advice that you’ll get as part of your subscription to Webcomics.com, this is a good sample.

If you’d like to join the site, you can get a 12-month subscription for $30 — or you can get a one-month Trial for $5 … with no obligation after your 30 days expire.  

You may have noticed something over the past few weeks. You’ll see Google Analytics reporting a huge spike in traffic — and then later in the day, you’ll see that your stats have been adjusted to normal levels. What just happened? Did someone “steal” your readers? Were they ever there?! The answer is pretty interesting.

Photo by Aitor Calero, CC-BY

Photo by Aitor Calero, CC-BY

 

Screen Shot 2014-03-20 at 5.16.26 PM

According to the sources I’m finding, this traffic flux is caused by bots. Analytics identifies it as such and adjusts the number to mitigate the effect — and that causes your traffic report to drop back to normal levels.

Is this happening to you?

Open Analytics and go to Audience -> Technology -> Browser & OS Report. Look for Mozilla Compatible Agent.

Mozilla’s not a culprit, but it’s an indicator. If you have an unusually high amount of traffic from this source, it’s a clue that something’s up.

Now open Audience -> Technology -> Network report and apply this advanced segment to show only visits where the Browser contains Mozilla Compatible Agent. (Special thanks for the Advanced Segment to Lunametrics.com).

Screen Shot 2014-03-20 at 5.29.45 PM

Once you’ve installed the Custom Segment, go back to the main Google Analytics dashboard — Audience Overview (as seen above) — and click the downward arrow at the upper left. Select The “Include Mozilla” segment, and then click Apply.

Screen Shot 2014-03-20 at 5.29.17 PM

(Note: The image above was created after Analytics normalized my traffic spike.)

Now scroll down and click Service Providers (under Systems). Look for the following:

  • yahoo! inc.
  • microsoft corp
  • google inc.
  • stumbleupon inc.
  • inktomi corporation

Also… look at the stats. Here are some dead giveaways for bot-traffic:

  • 100% new visits
  • 100% bounce rate
  • 0o:oo:00 average visit duration
  • 1 pages/visit.

If what you’re seeing lines up with the above, you’ve got bots!

Bot control

Filtering these results out of my report is fairly easy. Click on Admin to access the following dashboard.

Screen-Shot-2014-03-20-at-5.50.52-PM

Set up a filter with the following parameters:

Screen Shot 2014-03-20 at 5.52.20 PM

The filter pattern is: ^(microsoft corp(oration)?|inktomi corporation|yahoo! inc\.|google inc\.|stumbleupon inc\.)$|gomez

Your Analytics report will now automatically filter out these bots.

But that’s a bandage; not a cure

You’re right. The bot-traffic is still there, and it’s causing your traffic report to be sampled — and that’s not particularly good.

The only problem is this — I haven’t been able to dig up a really good solution yet — at least not one that I feel is easily implemented by a garden-variety user. However, I’m going to keep digging, and I’ll report back when I find something that’s useful.

In the meantime — at least for my own curiosity — I’ve solved the Mystery of the Disappearing Traffic Spike. I’ll know better than to get my hopes up next time I wake up to a huge traffic uptick (at least until I can verify that it’s legit). And when it disappears later in the day, I won’t feel quite so cheated.

by Brad Guigar on March 27, 2015
Posted In: Tech, Uncategorized
Comments available to logged in users only.


Recent comments

  • dogss on You need to publish a vertical scroll NOW
  • Brad Guigar on Exclusive Member Benefit: Webcomics Handbook
  • BuddyGoodboyEsq on Exclusive Member Benefit: Webcomics Handbook
  • Ian on Getting Started with the Right Attitude
  • Brad Guigar on Getting Started with the Right Attitude

Search




Webcomics.com Poll

I design my comic specifically for smartphones and digital tablets.

  • Disagree (52%, 175 Votes)
  • Agree (48%, 161 Votes)

Total Voters: 336

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Categories

  • Archive Dive
  • Articles
    • Advertising
    • Art
    • Business
    • Community
    • Conventions
    • Creativity
    • Crowdfunding
    • Digital publishing
    • Image prep
    • Lettering
    • Marketing / Social Media
    • Merchandise
    • Print publishing
    • Tech
    • Web site
      • Web Site Design
    • Writing
  • ComicLab
  • Edited and Ready
  • Events
  • Guest
  • Hot Seat critiques
  • Information
  • Interviews
  • Livestream Chat
  • Mail Bag
  • Member Benefits
  • Promos
  • Site News
  • Studios
  • Surviving Creativity
  • To-Do List
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Webcomics Confidential
  • Webcomics Weekly
  • Webcomics.com Poll

Tags

AdSense advertising Comic Easel comments composition contract copyright creativity exercise credit cards Crowdfunding digital lettering digital publishing Facebook Google Analytics holiday Humor IP KDP Kickstarter Kindle legal lettering line weight Longform comics Manga Studio merchandise NCS panels Patreon Promotion PulsePoint readers revenue SEO shipping social media Square taxes trademark Twitter typography Web design word balloons WordPress writing

Special Features

Just now, in the forum…

  • Mixing First and Third Person Captions
  • Help with Toocheke
  • Label Printer for shipping
  • Patreon Merch
  • Pricing Your Comics

Recent Posts

  • ComicLab Ep 242 — San Diego Comic Con review
  • Start planning holiday merchandise — NOW
  • How many panels per page?
  • Telegraphing a joke
  • Manga-inspired word balloons — and why you might want to rethink them

Recent Replies

  • Brad Guigar on Mixing First and Third Person Captions
  • Brad Guigar on Help with Toocheke
  • Brad Guigar on Label Printer for shipping
  • Andrew Fraser on Label Printer for shipping
  • Brad Guigar on Label Printer for shipping

Recent Topics

  • Mixing First and Third Person Captions by jpactor
  • Help with Toocheke by Andrew Fraser
  • Label Printer for shipping by Andrew Fraser
  • Patreon Merch by Jaycee Knight
  • Pricing Your Comics by Jaycee Knight

Recent Comments

  • dogss on You need to publish a vertical scroll NOW
  • Brad Guigar on Exclusive Member Benefit: Webcomics Handbook
  • BuddyGoodboyEsq on Exclusive Member Benefit: Webcomics Handbook
  • Ian on Getting Started with the Right Attitude
  • Brad Guigar on Getting Started with the Right Attitude
  • My Subscription
  • Store
  • Terms of Service
  • Account
  • Membership List

©2007-2022 Webcomics.com | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑