On my website, Google Analytics shows 17,000 users in the past 30 days, while Webmaster Tools only shows 20 users during the same period. 85% of users in Google Analytics came from Google searches, causing confusion due to the significant disparity between the two metrics.
The discrepancy between Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools data is likely due to the different metrics each tool measures.
Google Analytics tracks all website visitors, regardless of how they arrived. This includes organic traffic, direct traffic, social media traffic, and referral traffic. Webmaster Tools, however, focuses specifically on organic search traffic from Google. It tracks the number of clicks on search results pages for your website.
Therefore, the large difference in user counts between the two tools likely indicates that the majority of your website traffic is not coming from Google searches. The 85% of users in Google Analytics who came from Google searches likely represent a significant portion of the 20 users seen in Webmaster Tools.
While the data discrepancy could also be caused by a bug, it’s more likely that the difference arises from the differing functionalities of each tool. It is important to understand that Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools measure different aspects of your website traffic and provide valuable insights for different purposes.