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In digital marketing, accurate analysis of website traffic is crucial for advertisers to decide where to place their ads and how to optimize their campaigns. Traditionally, SEO tools like MOZ, Ahrefs, or SEMrush are used for analysis. However, there is a much more efficient and accurate option – Google Analytics (GA).

This article explains why advertisers should focus on direct data from Google Analytics instead of relying on external SEO tools, which often provide only estimated information. In the other words, This article explains why advertisers should f**k unreliable SEO tools and instead demand real data directly from Google Analytics.

What Are the Main Differences Between Google Analytics and SEO Tools?

SEO tools like MOZ, Ahrefs, or SEMrush collect data primarily using crawlers (bots) that scan websites and analyze their content, backlinks, and keywords. In contrast, Google Analytics provides direct data based on actual visitors, meaning the information is not mere estimates but real figures. What’s wrong with that? Well, pretty much everything.

Criterion	Google Analytics	MOZ / Ahrefs / SEMrush
Data Source	Actual website traffic	Estimated data from crawlers
Accuracy	High	Low and dependent on scan frequency
Data Updates	Real-time	Delayed and incomplete
Information Scope	Complete user insights (demographics, behavior, traffic sources)	Only SEO metrics (backlinks, estimated traffic, keywords)

Key Reasons Advertisers Should Prefer Google Analytics

More Accurate and Real Data

SEO tools estimate traffic about as accurately as a doctor diagnosing cancer over the phone. Google Analytics, on the other hand, works with real data. SEO tools provide only estimated traffic values, while Google Analytics works with specific data about real users who have visited the website. For example, Ahrefs might show that a website has 50,000 monthly visitors, but in reality, it could be only 20,000.

Detailed Audience Insights

Google Analytics provides information on:

User demographics (age, gender, location)
Devices used to access the site
Traffic sources (organic search, social media, direct visits)

SEO tools? Forget it. They have absolutely no idea about this kind of data, which is a significant disadvantage for advertisers.

Real-Time Data Updates

Tools like Ahrefs or MOZ update their data at intervals (perhaps once a week or month), whereas Google Analytics provides real-time data updates. This means advertisers can immediately monitor the impact of their campaigns and adjust their strategy accordingly.

Understanding User Behavior

Google Analytics offers detailed insights into how users behave on a website:

How long they stay on a page
Which pages they visit
Where they exit the site

SEO tools care only about backlinks and keywords, but user behavior? They couldn’t care less.

Protection Against Fake Traffic

Many websites use bots or fake traffic generators to artificially inflate their visitor numbers. SEO tools like Ahrefs may not detect this, but Google Analytics enables advertisers to filter out invalid traffic and identify genuine users.

Common Mistake: Displaying Zero Traffic Even for Strong Websites

For many websites, Ahrefs or MOZ often show traffic as zero or extremely low, even when the site actually receives tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors per month. How is that possible? Because SEO tools have no clue what is actually happening on a website beyond their own crawler bubble. This happens particularly in the following cases:

Websites running paid advertising (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads)
Pages that are not frequently indexed by these tools’ crawlers
Lesser-known domains and local websites

Therefore, advertisers should not rely on SEO tool traffic estimates if they want to understand a website’s real traffic. Google Analytics remains the only reliable source of data, as it records all website visits, regardless of their source.

Conclusion

If advertisers genuinely want to place their ads on effective websites with relevant traffic, Google Analytics data is the only reliable choice. SEO tools like Ahrefs or MOZ can be useful for SEO strategies, but for accurate analysis of real traffic, they cannot be relied upon.

If you want to invest wisely and effectively, request direct data from Google Analytics instead of relying on imprecise third-party estimates.

So next time someone claims that a website has “low traffic” according to Ahrefs, ask for Google Analytics data and check the real statistics. Otherwise, you risk being deceived by tools that avoid reality as successfully as politicians avoid responsibility.