How to track web pages with zero traffic in Google Analytics
Google Anaytics does not report on web pages which have got zero pageviews in a selected time period.
However Google Analytics does report on web pages which have got zero pageviews on certain days and 1 or more pageviews on other days in a selected time period:
Thus the concept of zero traffic is time bound.
Almost every web page on your website got traffic at some point in its life time. If you look at your GA reports with a very large time frame, you may see a pageview recorded for almost every page on your website.
However there can also be many web pages which have never seen the light of the day. The web pages for which Google Analytics has never ever recorded a single pageview.
These are the web pages which Google Analytics can’t report on, no matter what time frame you select.
Web Pages with 1 pageview in a month
If you go to the ‘All Pages‘ report (under Behavior > Site Content) of the last one month and sort the pageview column in increasing order, you can see all the web pages which have got only 1 pageview in the last one month:
These 1 pageview pages are your zero traffic pages. If they have got only 1 pageview in the last one month, it means they got zero pageviews on other 29 days of the month.
Technically speaking, they are not zero traffic pages as they still got one pageview but they are pretty close to zero and good enough data to work on.
This is the easiest way to determine zero traffic pages on your website. No website crawl, no excel hacks and everyone can do it pretty easily with just few clicks.
Finding web pages with zero pageviews in the last one month
May be you are not satisfied with just finding ‘1 pageview a month’ web pages. You also want to know the web pages which haven’t got a single pageview in the last one month, the one which are truly dead.
There are couple of methods to find zero pageviews pages. I will show you the one which is easiest to implement.
Follow the steps below:
Step-1: Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. It is a powerful website crawler which can also communicate with Google Analytics API. I used this tool a lot for tag auditing.
Step-2: Go to ‘Configuration’ menu and then click on the ‘Spider’ menu item:
Step-3: Uncheck following check boxes to speed up your website crawl:
- Check Images
- Check CSS
- Check JavaScript
- Check SWF
- Check External links
If you start the website crawl without unchecking these boxes and your website has got tens of thousands of web pages, then it may take forever to complete the crawl.
Moreover we don’t need image files, css files, javascript files etc for our analysis.
Step-4: Again Go to ‘Configuration’ menu and then click on API Access > Google Analytics:
Step-5: Click on ‘Connect to new account’ button in the ‘Google Analytics Configuration’ dialog box:
You will then be redirected to a new web page in your browser where you will following similar message:
Step-6: Click on the ‘Accept’ button. Screaming frog tool can now access your Google Analytics data via API.
Step-7: Select the Google Analytics account, Property and view whose data you want to analyse from the drop down menus:
Select the GA view which has got no filters and which contains all of your website traffic data.
Step-8: Click on the ‘Date Range’ tab and select the last one month date as shown below:
Step-9: Click on the ‘ok’ button to close the ‘Google Analytics Configuration’ dialog box.
You have now configured both your crawler and Google Analytics, and are now ready to start the website crawl.
Step-10: Enter your website URL and then click on the ‘start’ button to start the website crawl:
Step-11: When the crawl is finished, click on the ‘Analytics’ tab:
Step-12: Select ‘No GA data’ from the ‘Filter’ drop down menu and then click on the ‘Export’ button to download the data into excel:
Step-13: Open the downloaded CSV file (named analytics_no_ga_data.csv) in excel. This file contains list of all those web pages which got zero traffic in the last one month.
However this file also contain those web pages which were crawled but would never be reported by Google Analytics.
These pages could be:
#1 Web pages with 301 status code
#2 URLs which are not really web pages (like: https://www.optimizesmart.com/http:www.optimizesmart.com).
#3 URLs with lot of weird query parameters.
#4 URLs which have got server side issues (4xx or 5xx errors)
The fastest way to get rid of all such web pages is to filter out only those pages which have got 200 status code:
Another article you will find useful: Understanding Users in Google Analytics
Announcement about my new books
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Google Anaytics does not report on web pages which have got zero pageviews in a selected time period.
However Google Analytics does report on web pages which have got zero pageviews on certain days and 1 or more pageviews on other days in a selected time period:
Thus the concept of zero traffic is time bound.
Almost every web page on your website got traffic at some point in its life time. If you look at your GA reports with a very large time frame, you may see a pageview recorded for almost every page on your website.
However there can also be many web pages which have never seen the light of the day. The web pages for which Google Analytics has never ever recorded a single pageview.
These are the web pages which Google Analytics can’t report on, no matter what time frame you select.
Web Pages with 1 pageview in a month
If you go to the ‘All Pages‘ report (under Behavior > Site Content) of the last one month and sort the pageview column in increasing order, you can see all the web pages which have got only 1 pageview in the last one month:
These 1 pageview pages are your zero traffic pages. If they have got only 1 pageview in the last one month, it means they got zero pageviews on other 29 days of the month.
Technically speaking, they are not zero traffic pages as they still got one pageview but they are pretty close to zero and good enough data to work on.
This is the easiest way to determine zero traffic pages on your website. No website crawl, no excel hacks and everyone can do it pretty easily with just few clicks.
Finding web pages with zero pageviews in the last one month
May be you are not satisfied with just finding ‘1 pageview a month’ web pages. You also want to know the web pages which haven’t got a single pageview in the last one month, the one which are truly dead.
There are couple of methods to find zero pageviews pages. I will show you the one which is easiest to implement.
Follow the steps below:
Step-1: Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. It is a powerful website crawler which can also communicate with Google Analytics API. I used this tool a lot for tag auditing.
Step-2: Go to ‘Configuration’ menu and then click on the ‘Spider’ menu item:
Step-3: Uncheck following check boxes to speed up your website crawl:
- Check Images
- Check CSS
- Check JavaScript
- Check SWF
- Check External links
If you start the website crawl without unchecking these boxes and your website has got tens of thousands of web pages, then it may take forever to complete the crawl.
Moreover we don’t need image files, css files, javascript files etc for our analysis.
Step-4: Again Go to ‘Configuration’ menu and then click on API Access > Google Analytics:
Step-5: Click on ‘Connect to new account’ button in the ‘Google Analytics Configuration’ dialog box:
You will then be redirected to a new web page in your browser where you will following similar message:
Step-6: Click on the ‘Accept’ button. Screaming frog tool can now access your Google Analytics data via API.
Step-7: Select the Google Analytics account, Property and view whose data you want to analyse from the drop down menus:
Select the GA view which has got no filters and which contains all of your website traffic data.
Step-8: Click on the ‘Date Range’ tab and select the last one month date as shown below:
Step-9: Click on the ‘ok’ button to close the ‘Google Analytics Configuration’ dialog box.
You have now configured both your crawler and Google Analytics, and are now ready to start the website crawl.
Step-10: Enter your website URL and then click on the ‘start’ button to start the website crawl:
Step-11: When the crawl is finished, click on the ‘Analytics’ tab:
Step-12: Select ‘No GA data’ from the ‘Filter’ drop down menu and then click on the ‘Export’ button to download the data into excel:
Step-13: Open the downloaded CSV file (named analytics_no_ga_data.csv) in excel. This file contains list of all those web pages which got zero traffic in the last one month.
However this file also contain those web pages which were crawled but would never be reported by Google Analytics.
These pages could be:
#1 Web pages with 301 status code
#2 URLs which are not really web pages (like: https://www.optimizesmart.com/http:www.optimizesmart.com).
#3 URLs with lot of weird query parameters.
#4 URLs which have got server side issues (4xx or 5xx errors)
The fastest way to get rid of all such web pages is to filter out only those pages which have got 200 status code:
Another article you will find useful: Understanding Users in Google Analytics
Announcement about my new books
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Himanshu Sharma
Certified web analyst and founder of OptimizeSmart.com
