Discrepancies between Zendesk Knowledge and Google Analytics data in Explore

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<p class="p">You can report on Zendesk Knowledge data within Knowledge, by using Google Analytics, or with
Explore. This article answers frequently asked questions about discrepancies in
reporting data between these three tools.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_jsk_lwy_qpb__ul_h2y_pyy_qpb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_mqq_5yy_qpb">Why doesn't the Guide data in Explore
match the data I see in Google Analytics?</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_w4w_wyy_qpb">Why do deleted or unpublished articles
still get views?</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_j2x_bzy_qpb">Why don't I see Knowledge Base data in
Explore from before January 18, 2021?</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_e3x_g3z_qpb">Why is there a discrepancy between
"native" reporting and the Explore dashboard?</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_mqq_5yy_qpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Why doesn’t the Knowledge data in Explore match the data I see in Google Analytics?</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Google Analytics is a general-purpose tool for tracking user activity on
any website. As a result, it offers a much broader set of features than the
Knowledge integration with Explore. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">At the same time, Google Analytics provides less contextual information
than the integration between Knowledge and Explore. For instance, Google Analytics
does not automatically differentiate between page views from agents and end
users.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Because the two tools were designed with different goals in mind, they are
implemented differently. Furthermore, Google Analytics is user-configurable, meaning
that its behavior varies widely between individual installations.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_qny_xrb_5qb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Can we fix discrepancies between the two tools?</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Generally speaking, no. We have no insight into how Google Analytics is
implemented. We can only speculate about how its tracking and aggregation
features behave relative to analogous mechanisms that power the Knowledge
integration with Explore.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_w4w_wyy_qpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Why do deleted or unpublished articles still get views?</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">There are a number of reasons an article may appear as having been viewed
after it was deleted or unpublished.</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_w4w_wyy_qpb__ul_c2f_ljc_5qb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Most commonly, deleted or unpublished articles receive views if
they have multiple translations and only one of the translations has been
deleted or unpublished. For example, if you publish both French and English
translations of an article, but you delete only the English translation, the
French translation might still receive views. To exclude deleted or
unpublished translations, you can filter by language in Explore.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_w4w_wyy_qpb__ul_d2f_ljc_5qb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">It’s also possible for Explore to register a view for an archived
article because Explore relies on the user's web browser in order to
register the activity. Under normal circumstances, the sequence of events
that leads Explore to track a view proceeds as follows:</p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_w4w_wyy_qpb__ul_d4r_kcd_5qb">
<li class="li">A user visits an article URL in their browser.</li>
<li class="li">The help center server responds with the contents of the article as well
as some code asking the user's browser to register the view with our
activity tracking system.</li>
<li class="li">The user's browser sends a request to our activity tracking system with
the information the help center provided (like which article it was or
which user viewed the article).</li>
<li class="li">Our activity tracking system receives the request from the user's
browser and registers the view.</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">In most cases, step 3 happens almost
immediately after step 2—it takes only milliseconds for the user's
browser to make the request. However, because the browser's behavior
is not something we control, we cannot say for sure how long it will
take for step 3 to happen.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">For example, if the
user's internet connection cuts out between steps 2 and 3, and they
later reconnect, we may register the activity only when they
reconnect. It might also be that the user's browser crashes and step
3 can happen only when they restart the browser. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">When we finally receive the tracking event, we can be confident
that the user did, in fact, view the article. However, we cannot
make guarantees about when the view actually occurred on the basis
of when the tracking event was received.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_j2x_bzy_qpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Why don’t I see Knowledge Base data in Explore from before January 18, 2021?</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The Knowledge Base dataset in Explore launched on January 18, 2021. Data from before
that date is not available in Explore.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_e3x_g3z_qpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Why is there a discrepancy between “native” reporting and the Explore dashboard?</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">We are replacing “native” reporting dashboards in the Zendesk agent interface with
Explore datasets. For example, the Knowledge Base dataset replaces the Knowledge
Base tab in the reporting section of the agent interface. While we aim to provide
feature parity between the two reporting tools, they are implemented differently. As
a result, discrepancies might exist. Once a dataset is available in Explore, it
should be considered the source of truth.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ics_wpk_r1c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Why isn't Explore reporting all of my article views?</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">There are multiple reasons why the number of article views in Explore might differ
from the number of views you see in Google Analytics: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ics_wpk_r1c__ul_hjn_ypk_r1c">
<li class="li">Ad blockers might prevent Explore from recording article views. </li>
<li class="li">Article views for draft, archived, and deleted articles are not recorded by
Explore. </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
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