Troubleshoot traffic fluctuations/inconsistencies

This troubleshooter will help you identify and resolve issues with traffic fluctuations and inconsistencies in your Analytics reports.

Please select your issueI see a spike in traffic starting from a particular dateI see a drop in traffic starting from a particular dateI see my own domain (or a domain added to referral exclusions) showing as a referral sourceAn unrealistically high number of sessions in my account are attributed to direct/(none)I see (not set) appearing a lot in my reportsMy AdWords clicks and sessions don't match

In the Acquisition > Source/Medium report, is there a single source/medium responsible for the spike?YesNo

Do you see a simultaneous drop in traffic from another source/medium?YesNo

Check Admin > Account > Change History. Were any filters added/edited in Analytics around that date?YesNo

Did you make any changes to your website or ad campaigns around that date?YesNo

Check Admin > Account > Change History. Were any filters added/edited in Analtyics around that date?YesNo

Check the Acquisition > Source/Medium report. Is there a single source/medium that drives the drop?YesNo

Did you make any changes to your website or ad campaigns around that date?YesNo

Check the Behavior > Landing Pages report. Is there a particular page that experienced a significant drop?YesNo

Are all pages of your website tagged with a Universal Analytics tag (gtag.js or analytics.js) rather than the Classic Analytics tag (ga.js)?YesNo

Have you added your domain to referral exclusions?YesNo

Has it been six months since you added your domain to referral exclusions?YesNo

Are you tracking more than one domain in your property (e.g., site.com and example.com), and are there links between these domains?YesNo

Have you added both domains to referral exclusions?YesNo

Are you seeing less referral traffic than you would expect for your website?YesNo

Have you added some of the websites that are supposed to drive traffic to your site to referral exclusions?YesNo

Is your website using non-secure protocol (HTTP)?YesNo

Are you sending some of the hits with Measurement Protocol?YesNo