Google Analytics- Is It Accurate?

I looked at my site’s stats in Google Analytics and boy were they low! So I decided to test it.

I Google this and found many posts that say that Google under reports, but none that did a test like I did on 2 different GA accounts/ same websites.

Michael Martinez wrote about this exactly 4 years ago today on SEOmoz. So this is nothing new.

A few months ago, I created another GA account and submitted the same websites. On august 11th I checked the stats. For the same time period; July 11 – August 10,2010, the results for the websites were different. Check the screenshots below.

In the images, I used my site audd.info, which is an addon domain on my hosting acct, so some of these images say audd.info and it shows as audd.kathypop.com for Webilizer and Awstats.

Google account stats for audd.info

Account #2

Google account #2 stats for audd.info

Compare the numbers – they are totally different from each other. How can this be? What does this say about Google’s credibility?

Here’s the stats from my C-Panel

Stats from C-Panel for audd.info

AWStats for Audd.info for Aug 2010

Webalizer Stats for Audd.info for Aug 2010

The ones in C-Panel differ somewhat, but you have to take into account that some like the Webalizer screenshot doesn’t distinguish between all visitors and unique visitors. Even so, they all are in the same ballpark, where the 2 Google accounts should be the same.

So, where does our Adsense accounts stand? Are those stats accurate? Is Google ripping us off? I definitely do not trust them ( and I never really did) and this test just confirmed my suspicions.

And if they are ripping us off, what can be done about it? take a look, and let me know your thoughts on this matter.