Why Is So Much of My GA4 Search Traffic From LA, NY, and Chicago?
If you’ve noticed that a large amount, or even the majority, of your website’s traffic is coming from Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, or other major cities, even if your business is located nowhere near these cities, you’re probably wondering why. The good news is that there is a valid explanation for this, and no, it’s not because the majority of users finding your website are actually from these cities. Spikes in traffic that are seemingly coming from Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago can be attributed to recent iOS (Apple’s operating system) updates that make it more difficult for third parties (like Google Analytics) to collect user data. More specifically, Apple’s iOS 15.5 update in 2022 automatically opted in users’ Safari browsers to a policy that obscures their IP addresses, making location data nearly impossible to accurately track.
How Do I Know If My Website’s Traffic From LA, NY, & Chicago Is Due To iOS Updates?
If your website is for a business that is located far away from LA, NY, & Chicago, but you are receiving large amounts of traffic from these cities, it is very likely that this location data is inaccurate and is being caused by iOS (Apple) updates. You can confirm this by opening your GA4 property and going to User > User Attributes > Demographic Details, then add a secondary dimension called “Operating System”. When you do so, you’ll most likely see that the operating system being used by the users in these cities is “iOS”. Conversely, cities that make more sense for your traffic to be coming from will likely have “Android” or “Windows” as their operating systems. Because over 47% of people in the United States have an iPhone, and the majority of those people use Safari as their primary browser, it’s very likely that Google Analytics 4 is incorrectly tracking where users are located when they visit your website. Unfortunately, as it currently stands, there is no real fix to this tracking issue unless everyone using Safari on an iPhone unchecks “Hide IP Address From Trackers” within the app’s settings.
Contact Boston Web Marketing!
If you have any questions about Google Analytics 4 location data or any other metrics that can be used to measure the performance of your website, please contact our team at Boston Web Marketing today! Our SEO specialists help businesses in almost every industry achieve higher search results! Give us a call today at (857) 526-0096 or fill out the contact form on our website, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
