I have a php script that has the ability to generate web analytics from several websites, all from a unique server. The tacking code is javascript based, something like: <script type="text/javascript">..jscode..</script> <noscript><image to track users with disabled javascript></noscript> Code (markup): I've noticed some traffic is not caught by code above (I've used php to generate a raw log of local traffic), some are clearly bot traffic, but others left me in doubt, so, my question is: Is it possible the users not being tracked by the js/noscript code are genuine human users or just bots/automated traffic?
It's simple actuality, you point the image address to a php script location, that particular address will return the headers of a 1px image, in return, the script gets the information of the user requesting the image. You can't get as much information as the javascript, but the basic is there.
Well, I guess we have the answer to your question then. Many visitors use different types of ad blockers these days, and most of them block such "images", so it's natural you get many visits, but not all of these visits get tracked. Beside that, there are tons of plugins (I use them too) that block all types of analytics scripts for privacy reasons. Hope that helps.
Welcome to why I think tracking scripts are BULLSHIT, and wonder what in blazes is so wrong with the information from your server logs (as easily processed by tools like analog or webalizer) that you even need ANY of that garbage in the first place. It's the province of SEO and marketing scammers who like to just have more numbers to make their bullshit look legit through more card-stacking hoodoo-voodoo. You want info about who's been visiting? READ YOUR BLOODY SERVER LOGS! ... and yes, it is possible for an adblock to block the script, but not SCRIPTING. As such that <noscript> might NEVER RUN! Well, not an inline script, but any externals it depends upon certainly. NOT that inline scripts should even EXIST since they're outdated, outmoded, we've been told for over a decade to stop using them, hence their being blocked if you deploy them on a website that has the CSP (content security policy) in place. JUST like style="", <style> and those stupid malfing halfwit onevent="" attributes!
It can also be tracked using a php tag in case the tracking is made on the same server, do you have anything to say about it?