If the filtered view in Google Analytics is showing higher traffic than the unfiltered view, despite ensuring that the reporting identity, time zone, and tagging are consistent across both properties, there are several potential reasons for this discrepancy:
- Bot Filtering: The filtered view may have bot filtering enabled, which excludes known bots and spiders from your reports. If the unfiltered view does not have bot filtering enabled, it could be inflating the traffic numbers by including bot traffic.
- Exclude Internal IP Addresses: The filtered view may have internal traffic filters applied to exclude traffic from specific IP addresses associated with your organization. If the unfiltered view does not have these filters applied, it could be including internal traffic, resulting in lower traffic numbers.
- Custom Filters: The filtered view may have custom filters applied to include or exclude certain types of traffic based on specific criteria, such as hostname, referral source, or user-agent. If these filters are not applied to the unfiltered view, it could result in discrepancies in traffic numbers.
- Sampling Differences: Google Analytics samples data for larger datasets to provide faster reporting. If the unfiltered view has a larger dataset and is being sampled more heavily than the filtered view, it could result in discrepancies in traffic numbers.
- Data Processing Latency: There may be differences in data processing latency between the filtered and unfiltered views, resulting in delayed or incomplete data being reported in one of the views.
- Data Integrity Issues: There could be data integrity issues affecting one of the views, such as data sampling, data sampling limits, or data processing errors, leading to discrepancies in reported traffic numbers.
To troubleshoot the issue further, you can compare the configurations and settings of both properties, including filters, views, and data processing settings. Additionally, you can review the data in both views to identify any patterns or anomalies that may explain the differences in reported traffic numbers. If the issue persists, you may need to reach out to Google Analytics support for further assistance in diagnosing and resolving the discrepancy.