Why does my visitor count not match up with Google Analytics?

If you’re tracking activity with Google Analytics, you may have noticed your visitor count in the tawk.to Dashboard is different than the one you’re seeing in Google.

Let’s take a look at how visitors are counted by each and how they compare.

In Google Analytics, the number of Users listed for your site is the number of unique visitors who have started one or more sessions within a given date range.

New Users in Google Analytics are first-time visitors over a selected date range. In the Audience Behavior report, the number of new users is the difference between total users and returning visitors.

The total of new and returning visitors combined may be higher than the total number of visitors on your site when new visitors return in the given time interval.

The Visitors field in the Home view of the tawk.to Dashboard shows the total number of visitor sessions on a property on which tawk.to is installed. A single visitor will be counted more than once if their visits occur over more than one session. 

When comparing the user count in Google to the visitor count in tawk.to, you may see some discrepancies. Both numbers represent the number of unique sessions per user on the site. However, there are slight differences between a session on Google and a session on tawk.to.

In Google Analytics, a session starts when a visitor lands on your site and continues for up to 30 minutes of inactivity. Any visitor returning to your site after 30 minutes of inactivity, is counted as starting a new session.

In GA4 you can extend session length using a parameter. It’s also possible to change the default session length.

In tawk.to, a session starts when a visitor lands on a property on which tawk.to is installed and lasts until the visitor leaves the site, the visitor or agent ends the chat, or the visitor is inactive on the site for at least 20 minutes. Sessions include visits to both the sites where the widget is installed and their property’s direct chat link URLs.

Keep in mind that a visitor may be counted as new more than once if cookies are deleted by the user.

To learn more about data collected at tawk.to, read this article: Understanding the statistics in your Dashboard

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