In case you see differences between the total pageviews reported in the LiftIgniter Lab and the numbers reported in third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, the following list of possible explanations might help you get to the bottom of the problem.
For more ideas on debugging differences between analytics tools, check out the post Comparing Data: Adobe Analytics vs. Google Analytics.
Pageview counts in the RealTime Panel deduplicate repeat pageviews
The RealTime Panel of LiftIgniter deduplicates multiple views of the same page, in order to provide a better sense of the number of distinct, fresh pageviews you are experiencing. These numbers could be as low as half the counts you see in the Analytics Panel. The counts in the Analytics Panel should more closely approximate those you see in third-party analytics tools.
Virtual pageviews (hash state change)
By default, neither LiftIgniter nor tools such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics trigger additional pageviews on hash state change within the page (e.g., navigating a slideshow or gallery). However, you may have already set up Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics to trigger additional pageviews as people navigate slideshows or galleries. If views of slideshows and galleries constitute a significant fraction of your pageviews, then this could create significant discrepancies between these and LiftIgniter.
If you want the LiftIgniter numbers and Google Analytics numbers to match closely, consider configuring LiftIgniter to trigger virtual pageviews, as described in our Single Page Application documentation.
Load order
Both LiftIgniter and Google Analytics load asynchronously, and both are recommended for placement at the end of the head (in contrast, Adobe Analytics loads at the end of the page and synchronously). However, depending on the exact order of the scripts, and the presence of other synchronous scripts, the scripts may get triggered at different times. For users who bounce off quickly, this can result in them getting counted by one service and not by another.
See also our page on Load order.
Browser compatibility
LiftIgniter has some browser compatibility limitations, specifically, old versions of Internet Explorer cannot load our script. These account for a small percentage of overall traffic but can explain persistent differences.
Spam traffic targeted at GA
Some traffic spammers do not actually visit your site but directly send events to GA making it appear as if they have visited your site. This might cause the GA numbers to be artificially high.
Timezone differences
LiftIgniter reports daily metrics using the Pacific timezone. Google Analytics reports daily metrics using whatever timezone you have configured in the settings for your view. If the timezones differ, the numbers for a specific day will not match.