I analyzed 200 e-commerce sites and found 73% of their traffic is fake

Summary

It all started with a simple, devastating problem. My client’s e-commerce website registered 50,000 visitors last February but made only 47 sales. A conversion rate of less than 0.1%. That was the moment I realized something was fundamentally broken with the way we measure success on the internet. As the head of a digital marketing agency, I am no stranger to confusing analytics. But this was different. An e-commerce client approached me last April, completely bewildered. They were pouring $4,000 a month into Facebook ads, their Google Analytics reports were glowing with green arrows pointing up, yet their business was barely breaking even. The numbers told a story of booming growth, but the bank account told a story of stagnation. My first thought was blunt. "Maybe your products are the problem?" I suggested, half-jokingly. They did not appreciate the feedback. But then I dove deep into their website traffic data, and a strange, unsettling feeling crept in. It was like walking into your own home and sensing that something is out of place, even if you cannot immediately identify what has moved. I should have probably left it alone. Instead, I went down a rabbit hole that would change how I view the entire digital economy. The Initial Investigation: Building a Truth Serum for Traffic Driven by this discrepancy, I built a simple tracking script. It was not a sophisticated piece of software, just a tool designed to observe how "users" actually interacted with the website. I was not just counting clicks; I was watching behavior. Mouse Movements: Did the cursor move in natural, human-like arcs, or did it snap between points? Scrolling Patterns: Was the scrolling speed variable, with pauses and upward scrolls, or was it a perfectly smooth, mechanical glide? Time Between Interactions: How long did a "user" wait between clicking a link, hovering over an image, or adding an item to the cart? In short, I was looking for the small, imperfect, and unpredictable actions that sep...