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Question on Google Analytic setup

by Brrainstormerr
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys,

I have a question regarding some Google Analytics tracking here. My company is looking to start a campaign where we need to track some how many visitors we are getting through an external link (a special "vanity" URL). Here is the set-up being used:

1. Say, our site is www.mysite.com

2. We have created some vanity URLs to be placed on a few other online publications. For example, we have a URL called www.mysite.com/publication1-coming-soon to be placed on publication1.com and www.mysite.com/publication2-coming-soon to be place on www.publication2.com. There are about 20 such URLs which will be placed on 20 different sites.

3. All such URLs such as www.mysite.com/publication1-coming-soon and www.mysite.com/publication2-coming-soon will redirect to the main www.mysite.com.

4. Now, let's say someone arrives on my site through one of these links, and then clicks to go on to some other page on my site.

5. At the end of it all, I need to generate reports on how many people came through each of the publications and how many additional pages they visited or whatever else they did on the site.

6. What I am worried about/guessing is that once the person lands on the main site, and clicks to go on to some other page on the main site, all his reference to which ever site he came from goes away (I may be wrong here).

So, my question is- what's the best way to go about setting this kind of a tracking? My report really needs to keep track of visitor's activities once they arrive from one of these "vanity" URLs, separate from the regular/direct visitors to the site.

Will really appreciate your help to this end. If someone can point out how to set this up in code, it would be awesome.

Thanks...
#analytic #google #question #setup
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Brrainstormerr,

    Have you tried Google Analytics Campaigns?
    Campaigns - Analytics Help

    You can use the Custom Campaign features to build in tracking for just about anything you want.
    Custom campaigns - Analytics Help
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    * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
    *     Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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    • Profile picture of the author Brrainstormerr
      Thanks for your reply DBurk... I did take a look at those some time back. The thing is, when you setup a custom campaign you need to add custom tags to these codes. The client on the other hand, is very particular about the vanity urls. So on any of those other publications sites, I need to place the link exactly as, for example, www.mysite.com/publication1-coming-soon.

      I may be wrong in interpreting the concept of URL tagging, the problem is right now I cant test it since the campaigns are not launched yet. But I have to be ready with a sure-shot strategy because I will get very little time to implement the same. I hope I have explained what I require clearly enough. It might be a pretty simple thing to setup, I just need to be sure I have got it right.

      Thanks again...
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      • Profile picture of the author Sipboy3000
        In order to track and create the reports you want, you have to use the URL builder tool in order to pass the data to analytics.

        URL Builder Tool is here: URL Builder - Analytics Help

        What you could do is use redirects with your vanity urls and use the url you built using the URL Builder Tool as the destination.

        For example, for http://www.mysite.com/publication1-coming-soon

        You could create a folder called publication1-coming-soon and put an index file inside that redirects to your destination url and upload it to the root directory of your website.

        So now when someone clicks that link it would go to that particular folder which would then redirect them to a destination url you create similar to something like this:

        --www.mysite.com/?utm_source=source&utm_medium=medium&utm_content=c ontent&utm_campaign=publication1 (of course you would have to name the source, the medium, the content, campaign name, etc. according to your own naming convention)

        Your tags would then register within analytics so you can create the reports you need.

        You would need 20 different folders if that's how many vanity urls you want to create and make sure to redirect the index file with the properly tagged url.

        Hope this helps
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        • Profile picture of the author Brrainstormerr
          Wow Sipboy, thanks for making it all so clear for me. Really appreciate that.

          Just one more question (since I don't think I will get time to test it out extensively), will the generated reports also show the rest of the activity on the site from that user? Example, someone lands on the site from one of the publications, gets redirected to the site homepage from the relevant folder, and then goes on to visit other pages on the site like a regular user.

          Also, say, he goes on to fill and submit a web form on the site, (I will be tracking form submissions via "goals"), then will I be able to get reports saying "N" number of users who landed on the site using the "publication-1" url from the publication-1 website, viewed "X" number of pages and out of the "N" number of visitors, "Y" proceeded to fill up the form?

          Thanks....
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          • Profile picture of the author dburk
            Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr View Post

            Just one more question (since I don't think I will get time to test it out extensively), will the generated reports also show the rest of the activity on the site from that user? Example, someone lands on the site from one of the publications, gets redirected to the site homepage from the relevant folder, and then goes on to visit other pages on the site like a regular user.
            Hi Brainstormer,

            Google Analytics will show you aggregated data, not data from a single individual user. You can see details of user types, just not individual users, as that is a violation of Google Analytics terms of service. See number 7 PRIVACY.

            You can view reports that show you stats for visits from specific referral sources, or campaigns:
            https://support.google.com/analytics...answer=1247839

            If you need to track individual users then I recommend you take a look at Piwik.

            Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr View Post

            Also, say, he goes on to fill and submit a web form on the site, (I will be tracking form submissions via "goals"), then will I be able to get reports saying "N" number of users who landed on the site using the "publication-1" url from the publication-1 website, viewed "X" number of pages and out of the "N" number of visitors, "Y" proceeded to fill up the form?
            Yes, GA does provide reports with that information.
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            * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
            *             Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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            • Profile picture of the author Brrainstormerr
              Thanks guys. Just another thought here- instead of using a folder structure, what if we do an apache/htaccess rewrite to change the /publication1-coming-soon link to the GA specific UTM Link?

              Thanks...
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              • Profile picture of the author Sipboy3000
                Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr View Post

                Wow Sipboy, thanks for making it all so clear for me. Really appreciate that.

                Just one more question (since I don't think I will get time to test it out extensively), will the generated reports also show the rest of the activity on the site from that user? Example, someone lands on the site from one of the publications, gets redirected to the site homepage from the relevant folder, and then goes on to visit other pages on the site like a regular user.

                Also, say, he goes on to fill and submit a web form on the site, (I will be tracking form submissions via "goals"), then will I be able to get reports saying "N" number of users who landed on the site using the "publication-1" url from the publication-1 website, viewed "X" number of pages and out of the "N" number of visitors, "Y" proceeded to fill up the form?

                Thanks....
                Yes, there are ways to track all the stuff you are talking about. You can create reports based on filters like region, city, browser type, operating system, etc.

                You can also track specific events and goals based on the way you set them up and track them back to the source. The utm codes will create the tags for you to also use with filters and you can generate all sorts of reports.

                So the short answer is it's all possible. But I don't have time to explain all of it, so you have to go dig for that info.

                I suggest you go read as much as possible about Google Analytics.

                If want some some advanced training and have the budget, check out Cardinal Path. Google Analytics Training | Cardinal Path Training


                Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr View Post

                Thanks guys. Just another thought here- instead of using a folder structure, what if we do an apache/htaccess rewrite to change the /publication1-coming-soon link to the GA specific UTM Link?

                Thanks...
                I'm not 100% sure on the apache/htaccess rewrite stuff. Never used it like that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brrainstormerr
    Thanks, Sipboy, for your help. I can figure out the rest of the stuff myself. Oh, and I implemented the tracking successfully tonight. Also, I can confirm that the htaccess url rewrite method works fine. I feel it's a tad cleaner and easier to manage than creating manual folders, specially when you have a lot of URLs to deal with.
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