The official Bit.ly Answer: What you're seeing are total decodes, as opposed to total click- throughs measured by JavaScript on the page. Decodes can be caused by bots, and by applications, like browser plug-ins, which expand the underlying url without causing a click-through.
If you download a browser plug-in that automatically expands short urls, for instance, it looks a lot like a human user to an analytics program. Absent JavaScript on the page, it's hard to distinguish between a decode and an intentional click-through. At the end of the day, Bit.ly complements rather than replaces JavaScript-based analytics utililties like Google Analytics or Chartbeat. You should probably read the following articles when you get a sec: http://searchengineland.com/how-twitter-might-send-far-more-traffic-than-you-think-21482 http://searchengineland.com/is-twitter-sending-you-500-to-1600-more-traffic-than-you-might-think-22696 Rex Bit.ly Community Mgr. On Feb 21, 8:36 pm, neal rauhauser <nrauhau...@gmail.com> wrote: > Is anyone else seeing dramatic disparities between what bit.ly reports > and what Google Analytics reports in terms of clicks? We're seeing like 10:1 > over reporting from bit.ly ... if Google Analytics is right. > > -- > mailto:n...@layer3arts.com // > GoogleTalk: nrauhau...@gmail.com > GV: 202-642-1717
