Link Analytics vs Google Analytics: Why the Numbers Differ

Link analytics counts clicks on a link, at the moment of the redirect. Google Analytics counts sessions on your website, once its tag runs in the visitor's browser. They measure different events, at different places, so the numbers almost never match, and that's expected.

This post explains what each one sees, why the link count is usually higher, and how to reconcile them.

What each one measures

Neither tool can tell you how many people saw your link. Impressions come from the platform where the link was posted: the email tool, the social network, the ad platform.

Why the link count is usually higher

• Link previews and scanners. When a link is pasted into Slack, iMessage or a social post, the app fetches it to build a preview. Slack's preview bot, for one, identifies itself as Slackbot-LinkExpanding and doesn't honour robots.txt (Slack's robots page). Email security tools open links before delivery too. Each fetch that follows the redirect counts as a click on the short link. Google Analytics never sees them, because they don't run JavaScript.
• People who leave early. A tap that lands on a slow page and goes back before the tag loads is a click with no session.
• Consent and blockers. If the visitor declines analytics cookies or runs an ad blocker, the redirect still counts and GA4 may record nothing.
• Links to other sites. A click on a link to a partner page, a PDF or a Google Doc is invisible to your GA4 property.

SendURL counts every successful redirect and has no bot filtering, so previews do show up in its numbers. Opening a click shows its user agent, which usually gives a preview away. Bot clicks and link previews covers how to spot them.

Why Google Analytics can be higher

• Other ways in. GA4 counts everyone who reaches the page: from search, bookmarks, typed URLs and other links, not just your short link.
• Repeat sessions. A session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity by default (Google), so one click followed by a long read and a return later can be two sessions.
• Shared destinations. If the same page is linked from five places and only one uses a short link, GA4 sees all five.

A worked example

Say you post one link, snu.to/oct-webinar-li, on LinkedIn, pointing at a webinar page tagged with utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-10-webinar. A week later:

The gap of 44 is made of the 9 preview fetches, people who left before the page loaded, and visitors who declined analytics. A steady gap between redirect clicks and sessions isn't a problem to fix; a sudden change in the gap is worth a look. (These numbers are an illustration, not data from a study.)

Use both, for different questions

• Link analytics answers: did people click, from which placement, when, from which country and device? See per-click link analytics.
• Web analytics answers: what did they do after they arrived, and did they convert?

The two connect through UTM parameters. Put them in the destination URL before you shorten it, so GA4 attributes the session to the right campaign; UTM parameters explains which ones GA4 reads. For the full picture of tracking clicks, with or without GA4, see how to track link clicks.

Checklist for comparing the two

• Use one short link per placement, so each count has one meaning
• Tag the destination with UTMs before shortening
• Compare the same date range, in the same time zone
• Check the clicks list for preview user agents before you compare
• Track the ratio of sessions to clicks over time, not one week's gap