Troubleshooting analytics problems

Something looks wrong with your analytics data? You are not alone — analytics issues are surprisingly common, and most have straightforward causes. This guide walks through the most frequent problems and how to resolve them.

Problem: No data is appearing in GA4

Possible causes:

1. GA4 tracking code has not been installed yet
2. The tracking code was accidentally removed from the site
3. Google Tag Manager is not firing the GA4 tag
4. The wrong GA4 property ID is in the tag

How to check:

Visit your website and go to your GA4 account. Open the Realtime report (Reports > Realtime). If your visit appears in realtime, tracking is working. If it does not appear, something is broken.

Also check whether your own IP address has been excluded from GA4 (a filter applied so your own visits do not inflate the data). Try visiting the site from your phone on mobile data — if you appear in Realtime on mobile but not on your office Wi-Fi, an IP exclusion filter is in place.

Problem: Numbers look much lower than expected

Possible causes:

1. Many visitors are declining the cookie consent banner
2. Ad blockers and privacy browsers are blocking GA4
3. The site is new and traffic genuinely is low
4. A date range filter is showing only a short period

How to check:

Compare your GA4 session count against your hosting provider's raw server log visitor count (if available). Analytics tools typically capture 60–80% of real visits because of privacy tools and consent declines. A large gap is normal.

Problem: Conversions are showing zero

Possible causes:

1. Conversion events have not been configured in GA4
2. The form or purchase flow is broken
3. The correct GA4 events are not being sent from the website

How to check:

Test the conversion action yourself (fill in your own contact form, or complete a test purchase). Then check the Realtime report — you should see an event appear. If nothing appears, the conversion is not being tracked.

If you see the event in Realtime but it is not showing in conversion reports, the event may not be marked as a key event in GA4 settings.

Problem: Sudden drop in traffic

Possible causes:

1. A Google algorithm update affected your rankings
2. A technical issue broke the tracking code
3. Seasonal variation (compare to the same period last year)
4. A major page was accidentally removed or set to "no index"
5. The site went down and recovered

How to check:

First check Google Search Console for any coverage errors or manual actions. Then compare the drop period to the same period last year to separate seasonal from algorithmic. Check your hosting provider's uptime monitor for any outage records.

Problem: Traffic source data looks wrong

Possible causes:

1. Email campaigns are being tagged as "Direct" (missing UTM parameters)
2. Social media traffic is being miscategorised
3. Referral spam is inflating certain channels

How to check:

Review the Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report and look for anything unusual. If "Direct" is unusually high, consider adding UTM links to your email campaigns and social posts.

Problem: I can see data but not for my dates

Possible causes:

1. The date range in GA4 is set to a period before tracking was installed
2. A date comparison filter is active and confusing the view

How to check:

Look at the date selector in the top right of GA4. Make sure the date range includes the period you want to examine. GA4 can only show data from when tracking was first installed.

Common questions

Related guides

• What is Google Analytics (GA4)?
• How GA4 gets set up on your site
• Cookie consent & banners explained
• UTM links for campaign tracking
• What is Google Tag Manager?

Learn more

• GA4 troubleshooting — Google Help
• Google Tag Manager Debugger