Strange analytics referrals

[pokerextras]

My google analytics stats have been showing referrals from one of my sites, zenrakeback to one of my others therakebackmafia even though there are no links between them. How is this possible. The strange thing is, google wouldn't even know that they're both mine. They're on different servers in different countries and the domains are registered in different names. I cannot work it out. Now, since yesterday, analytics is showing referrals from therakebackmafia to itself. How does that work? Can anybody think of an explanation?

[OPC]

My google analytics stats have been showing referrals from one of my sites, zenrakeback to one of my others therakebackmafia even though there are no links between them. How is this possible. The strange thing is, google wouldn't even know that they're both mine. They're on different servers in different countries and the domains are registered in different names. I cannot work it out. Now, since yesterday, analytics is showing referrals from therakebackmafia to itself. How does that work? Can anybody think of an explanation?

A image hosted on one site, referenced by another, perhaps?

[Michael Martinez]

I can think of two possibilities, both of which I have encountered.

First scenario: You're using the same template on both sites and there are hard-coded navigational links in the template that point only to one site.

Second scenario: Google Analytics' data is chewed up and corrupted. I have seen this happen a few times. Don't ask me why it happens. They eventually find the problem and fix it. If you're using one Google account to track analytics for both sites that MIGHT explain the problem.

I would regard scenario one to be more likely than scenario two, although I have actually seen some odd stuff in Google Analytics over the past week. Maybe they do have another corruption issue.

They don't usually talk about problems in their database, however, so it's hard to verify when Google is the cause of the problem.

There may be other possible/plausible explanations I have not encountered.

ON EDIT: OPC's suggestion is a good one, actually. Hotlinking can cause all sorts of odd reporting behavior.

[pokerextras]

Just to clarify. The two sites are totally seperate entities. They're both individualy supplied by different rakeback solution suppliers and are run on their own servers. There are no links of any sort whatsoever, including referrences. Even if googles analytics data is corrupted, there is no way of them knowing that both sites are mine. I only actually have analytics set up for therakebackmafia. They both have seperate email addresses. The fact that they're both mine is too unbelievable to be a coincidence though. And why would analytics show that my site is refering customers to itself?

[Michael Martinez]

But are you using the same HTML template on both sites?

If not, I would have to see the analytics report in order to form a better opinion.

[leporello]

I'm having the exact same issue. GA is showing referrals like

Site A - Site C where I do not have any link on site A pointing to site C. I do however, have a link from site A to site B, but no links between B and C either. What's even more perplexing is that both sites are setup under different analytics accounts....

[pokerextras]

Are yours all setup through re Ian? If so, maybe the html theory comes into play. Mine are set up by different people using different code, who to the best of my knowledge have no idea who each other are.

I'm having the exact same issue. GA is showing referrals like

Site A - Site C where I do not have any link on site A pointing to site C. I do however, have a link from site A to site B, but no links between B and C either. What's even more perplexing is that both sites are setup under different analytics accounts....

[leporello]

No, only one site is a rakeback engine site. the rest are completely unrelated and have absolutely no linking going betweeen them...

[OPC]

Is it possible that analytics is picking up your traffic between sites? For example, you are on site A, when you type in the url of site b into your browser and go. Perhaps there's an error where analytics is not fully able to filter.

[Michael Martinez]

This is starting to sound too consistent to be an Analytics problem. It sounds like an HTML problem to me. The smallest thing in your code might cause any amount of trouble.

If either of you has taken HTML (or Javascript) code from one site and used it on the other, even though you're convinced there is no way it could cause this problem, you should check it again.