Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with googleanalytics

Is the Google Analytics Individual Qualification worth paying for?

ryanshepard — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:07:27 -0800

I'm looking for a way to hone my skills and demonstrate to potential employers that I have some proficiency with Google Analytics - is the Individual Qualification worth paying for? Are there other, better options?

Google Analytics hiccup?

jrchaplin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:58:11 -0800

Trying to figure out what gives with a Google Analytics anomaly for the website I manage. In essence, GA reports that the average time mobile users spent on a page increased tenfold in the last month. Trying to figure out what gives with a Google Analytics anomaly for the website I manage. In essence, GA reports that the average time mobile users spent on a page increased nearly tenfold in the last month.

In February 2013 we had approximately 317,000 visits from users mobile platforms, spending an average of 00:02:25 on each page. Last month, March, we had 311,000 visits, spending and average of 00:20:53 on each page. That's 2.5 minutes in Feb., and almost 21 minutes in March, which seems highly unlikely. All other metrics seem within the realm of normal month-to-month fluctuations, except for overall average time on page, which is out of whack (4 minutes in Feb., 7 mins, 51 secs in March) due to the huge spike in mobile time in page.

I'm no Google Analytics guru, but I know how to run basic reports. I've run basic reports today for each of the last 12 months, and while we've seen gradual growth in mobile visits, last month's spike in mobile time on page is way out of whack.

Any ideas on what could cause this?

Im in yr wiki, trackin yr error messages.

supercres — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:37:42 -0800

I have a MediaWiki installation on new hardware to replace an old public website. Occasionally someone visits the site using a dead link and gets MediaWiki's "There is currently no text in this page". I can customize the message they get, but how can I get a notification (ideally with Google Analytics custom variables) whenever this happens, without using GA's standard Javascript? This is probably a simple question, but I know very little PHP and even less Javascript, so here we are.

I moved my lab's website to MediaWiki (previously), where all pages are publicly viewable, but only I can edit them.

I have a Google Analytics account for the site, working seamlessly per these instructions. The problem is that I'll occasionally see someone hit the site using an old link, because the MediaWiki page that they enter on is called /~oldlabmember/info.html. I know they're seeing MediaWiki's "There is currently no text in this page." error and getting confused. (Big surprise that there's no page with that name!) I'd like to see when and where this happens so I can put up a redirect on pages where it occurs more than once.

I know that I could create a Custom Variable in Google Analytics that would show up whenever someone hits a certain page and loads a bit of Javascript. I can customize this system message, so I could insert this code, in theory. The problem is that Javascript (which the Custom Variable code uses) is blocked by MediaWiki as a security risk (and rightly so).

I can put the script in Mediawiki:Missing_Page.js or something, but I can't figure out how to only call that when a user hits a "There is currently no text..." page (i.e., not calling Missing_Page.js in Common.js on every single page load).

How do I get around this? An invisible pixel tracking system would work, but I'd really rather not sign up for another analytics account that uses 1x1 gifs for tracking. Moving over ALL the old files from the previous server is even less appealing (especially since I've already moved some into more logical locations on the new server).

Thanks!

Google Analytics: Best practices for tracking multiple domains?

chillmost — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:58:46 -0800

What is the best way to set up Google Analytics to track multiple domains? I have a website that has 2 TLDs: example.com & example.de. I have already seen what google recommends here for tracking code changes for treating top domains as one entity and tracking them in the same profile. These changes are in the process of being implemented and should be online soon.

My main questions concern how I should then set up my profiles in GA to track them. I'm not sure what the best practices would be. I'm not sure what types of things I should be specifically looking for in my profiles. I know I'll probably want to be able to examine both domains as a whole, but also be able to view them separately and also track the movement between them and see how users get from one domain to another, from what page, section, etc.

What is the best way of going about this? There is a short explanation on the page I linked to, but it isn't quite clear.

What are some other things I should be looking for or examining with a multiple domain set-up?

Are there any other not so obvious on-site changes to the tracking code I should consider for use in tracking multiple domains?

What are some common mistakes I should avoid?

What do you wish you knew when you tried to so something like this?

Block IP address from google analytics

bluelight — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 05:09:03 -0800

How do I exclude my IP address from Google Analytics once and for all? I'm traveling at the moment and I use a mac. I won't be staying in one place for too long for the next year and will continually use new internet sources pretty much every day or every other day.

I just started using Google Analytics. I'm confused because, well, for one I guess I don't understand what an IP address is. But I'm guessing that if I'm continually on the move and switching to new wifi every day or every other day...my IP address changes, is that right?

So I just looked up my IP address yesterday when I realized GAnalytics was recording my data and created a filter for it...but when I go under Networks to find the IP address vs. whatismyip.com, I get two different numbers! Can anyone explain this?

Also, I did read that I could make my IP address static, but I tried and it conflicts with the router...basically it just won't let me or I'm doing it wrong.

I don't want to have to look up my IP address (or my two IP addresses??) every time I get connected to a new internet source so that I can block myself from getting recorded into gAnalytics. Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks

Google, why do you make my brain hurt?

cgg — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:20:53 -0800

How does real time google analytics measure the "active visitors on site"? Please help me, because apparently I fail at math. I love google analytics, and the real-time data thing they have going on now. However, it doesn't give me any historical data on it's main real-time calculation -- "active visitors on site". I'm trying to figure out how to calculate it using the data is does give me.

However, I can't figure out how they come up with their numbers. For example, during a previous time period google was telling me I had around 2500 active users on my site. Yay me.

But matter how I look at it, I can't make the other stats re-create this number for me. For example. For that same time period, over that hour I had about 25,000 visits, 50,000 page views, and an average time on site of just over 1 minute.

So by my calculation, that means I have around (25000/60 = 416) visitors per minute, and since they all stick around for about a minute, this means on average I should have about 416 people online at any one time then? 416 is a lot different that 2500!

I don't need things to match up exactly as I realize the fact that the smallest chunk of time google analytics will give me is numbers over an hour, but I really would like to get into the right ballbark. 400 is not the same ballpark as 2500.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this yet another super secret google formula they are using? Is there some basic understanding of how these numbers work that I'm missing? I really hope I'm the one thats screwing up here, because then maye I can fix it and figure out how many people were online at any one time yesterday!

Sharing experiment data

fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:07:03 -0800

Is there a way to access Google Website Optimizer experiment data/results via a Google Analytics account? We finally have something that we want to test using Google Website Optimizer, but now that I've set up the experiment as a proof-of-concept and am waiting for data to accumulate, I wonder what the best method to view this data will be. GWO requires that you have an Analytics account to run, but I can't really see a way to see the data inside of Analytics--just in the GWO controls and in AdWords, of all places.

It looks like they want you to create an AdWords account for access to Analytics and Optimizer data in one place, but that seems awkward at best. (It feels like there are three different teams with conflicting goals working on this and the end result is this compromise and customer confusion, but I could be projecting here...)

I'm a firm believer in teaching people to fish when it comes to looking up site data, so I'd like to have another method for sharing besides asking people to create Yet Another Google Service Tie-in to accounts or exporting data out of Website Optimizer. Should I just wait for the inevitable Google+ integration?

Should I allow an outside partner connect its AdWords account to my GA account?

mph — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:41:18 -0800

An outside partner I've allowed non-admin access to my Google Analytics account wants to connect its AdWords account to my Google Analytics account. I don't currently use AdWords, but it's a future possibility. What are the ramifications of allowing them to do this? Will it affect my own ability to connect my own or other AdWords accounts to GA in the future? Will that linkage affect my own reporting?

Search traffic dropping for queries of company name, domain or URL

ao4047 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:25:55 -0800

I'm seeing a weird drop in August in search-related traffic to my company's site. What's odd is it is for searches of the company's name, domain name or URL. I've seen a significant drop in traffic to our homepage in August (both Google and Bing). The strange part is it is for queries involving our company name. So let's say we're Blue Widgets. There's fewer search queries referred for blue widgets and bluewidgets and bluewidgets.com and even the URL being typed into the search box http://bluewidgets.com/. If I run these searches in Google or Bing, we are still in top set of results. There have been no changes to the actual HTML of the homepage.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any explanation search-minded folk can add?

Who owns our Google Analytics account?

twine42 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:48:58 -0800

Is there any way to find out which email address 'owns' our google analytics stats? Our Analytics account was owned by someuser@example.com right up until we got GMail to host example.com's email for us.

When we did that, Analytics had a strop about someuser@example.com being an invalid user (because it had suddenly become a gmail account) and said the Analytics account needed a new email address that wasn't an example.com address.

Up until this point, all is good.

The problem is that some impatient colleague decided to associate the Analytics account with a new email address and then forgot what email address they had used.

Other than patience and/or torture, is there any way to find out what email address the existing Analytics are associated with?

Google Analytics: Retroactively pulling data?

anekona — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:36:31 -0800

Google Analytics Filter: I started off with Google Analytics tracking an initial domain -- let's say mypaperplane.com. Some time after, I added a new domain to forward to the same site/server, mypaperplaneS.com. Now as I look at my Analytics, I'm seeing only data corresponding to the original domain, and not for the new domain. Is there any way I can pull up data such that it shows visits coming from the new domain? Or is that data forever lost into the ether? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Google analytics data ninja training

diode — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:13:15 -0800

How can I become a Google analytics data ninja? I've gotten a couple of books promising great things you can do with analytics but been disappointed with the results. The books seem to assume that if the author tells you all the cool info/insights you can derive from analytics that this is sufficient to be able to use it effectively.
I'm stuck in the interface thinking 'how do I do this?', 'how do I segment', 'how do I track traffic to one page or from one online event.' I need to move my company into an online focus and using analytics effectively to connect marketing to conversions is key. I'm not a data geek. I need some training tools that will move me from relative newbie to having a decent tracking system for our web site. I've looked at Google's Conversion University tools and found them not quite what I need.

Google Analytics in an iPhone webapp gone native

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:40:50 -0800

How can I make Google Analytics + event tracking work from without a webapp-as-native-application on the iPhone? I think it doesn't report a domain. I'm working on a native iPhone application which is really a webapp wrapped in Phonegap. I want to use Google Analytics to track how many times the app data is loaded from the web, and hopefully track events such as how often certain sections of the app are used.

(I know Google provides an SDK specifically for use with iPhone OS apps, but my app is currently all HTML and JS but for the wrapper, and I'd prefer to keep it that way because I haven't really dug into Obj-C yet.)

I've tried different implementations of the GA script, but as soon as I start testing on the device (or Simulator for that matter) nothing is being reported.

I think it may have something to do with the index.html on the device not having a "domain" as such. "setDomainName("none")" doesn't seem to help here.

Here's my current implementation:

-index.html on the device, in <head>:

<script type="text/javascript">

            var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");

            document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

        </script>

-In index.html the application data is collected from the web using Ajax. This loads the contents of a file "content.php" and writes them into the <body>. In this file:

<script type="text/javascript">

try {

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-12345-1");

pageTracker._setDomainName("none");

pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);

pageTracker._trackPageview();

pageTracker._trackEvent('My Delightful App, 'Application', 'Load');

} catch(err) {}</script>

Any ideas how to fix this? I've asked on the respective forums for Analytics and Phonegap but haven't gotten much further.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Google Analytics: I want to be able to track how many visitors to the blog go through to the main site.

mireille — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:13:08 -0800

Google Analytics: I want the subdirectory to appear as a referrer to the main site... what am I missing? (Hi all-- I posted this on the Google Analytics forum but haven't received a response-- hoping AskMe can help!)

I have two instances of WordPress set up on one domain for a client. I have installed separate Google Analytics tracking codes and they are functioning on each, respectively: www.site.com and www.site.com/blog.

I am trying to track the efficacy of the blog, which is a repository of useful information that is provided to visitors as a self-help resource; the idea is that it will weed out those with simple questions and then drive qualified traffic that requires additional help to the main commercial site. It is for a small business that receives many requests for information and I am trying to reduce the number of basic requests in order to extract the more qualified prospective clients.

I set up a secondary profile for each section of the site in Google Analytics, and then set filters on these profiles as follows:

-- the "Blog Only" filter (on the blog only profile) is set to include only traffic to the subdirectories that contain /blog/
-- the "Main Site Only" filter (on the main site only profile) is set to exclude traffic to the subdirectories that contain /blog/

Testing shows that direct traffic to the blog that clicks through to the main site does not show up as a referral-- it only shows as "direct". I've also tried clicking through a Google search result as a separate test, and traffic that lands on the blog and goes through to the main site shows up as a "Google traffic source" and the original search term that brings one to the blog shows up in the keywords on the Dashboard of the "main site only" profile.

I know a lot of users have had trouble with their site undesirably showing up as a referrer-- but I want this exact scenario (preferably via filters and for the supplementary profiles only). Ideas? What am I missing?

How to get wordpress, google to love each other?

pomegranate — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:28:59 -0800

I have a little blog about HR/work. I am running profiles on people who are looking for jobs, to help them get their name out there. This morning, I broke my blog, right when the first profile was taking off. Somehow, the unholy trinity of wordpress, google gears, and google analytics stripped my site of all styling and now I can't log in to the admin backend to fix it. I really want this lady to get the attention she deserves. I entered the issue on Wordpress support forums, but I don't expect to get a comprehensive answer anytime soon.
A) Does anyone know enough about all three tools to point me in the right direction?
B) How do you go about finding and selecting an ad-hoc site admin, someone who can keep me away, far far away, from tables and html and, basically, the entire back end? I'm happy to pay, at this point it's either pay someone else or delete the blog entirely.

Help with Google Analytics

readery — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:18:30 -0800

How is it possible that the website for my employer has vastly different statistics from Google Analytics than the numbers from the referring website where we pay for a banner ad? It's time to look at cost/benefit analysis and sites we have banner ads on don't seem to be worth it according to our inhouse statistics. The referring source has statistics 50 times higher through their source, Doubleclick.com. I don't know enough about it to judge.

Please help me figure out how to judge which is correct, or point me in the direction where I can figure it out (I am not knowledgable about this at all).

Thanks

A Strange and Mercurial Beast

Scattercat — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:58:30 -0800

I use Google Analytics to track traffic to my crappy little writing blog. On Wednesday, I had 20 visits from 13 visitors. On Thursday, I had 99 visits from 89 visitors, of whom 95% were "direct link" visitors. This is obviously nonsense. What on Earth happened? Likewise, GA insisted two weeks ago that I'd had upwards of forty unique hits from a particular site which, when investigated, proved to be a blog in Portuguese with only two entries, both dated 2007, in which the author appeared to be reviewing brands of laptop. There were no other posts and no other links visible. Was this related or a whole new brand of wacky problem?

Please bear in mind that my knowledge of computers is only marginally more advanced than, "Ug like magic box. Magic box make pretty talky-pictures and words."

Could the new google analytics be causing my SSL to be insecure?

TrueVox — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:01:06 -0800

Anyone familiar with making SSL work with Google Analytics and Drupal? I'm currently working on a website for work. I have my SSL cert installed, but when I try to connect securely, it keeps complaining that a part of the site is insecure. I finally think I've narrowed it down to the Google Analytics code we're using (it's the new, supposedly self switching code, not the old manual code). Is it possible that it's causing trouble because I have it in the "footer" section of my Drupal UI? If so, how else do I install it? Or am I WAY off base, and it's actually an issue some where else?

The site, for reference, is www.mailritevt.com.

Thank you in advance!

Goo Goo Ka Google

spicynuts — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:40:06 -0800

Need recommendations for the best two or three books on Google Analytics from both a programming perspective and a biz/marketing person's analysis perspective. I need to some recommendations on books that can help in both of the following areas:

1) how to implement necessary code throughout an ecomm site to leverage full capabilities of google analytics to track and understand usage

2) how to interpret, analyze and understand the results/data that comes back from google analytics

Percentage breakdown of major Flash versions in GA?

gwint — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:28:07 -0800

Easy way to determine major Flash version percentages in Google Analytics? GA provides a breakdown of Flash versions for all users, but each sub-version is listed independently. This makes it difficult to get a quick list of percentages for the major versions. Is there some preference I'm missing? Alternatively, would there be an easy way to tease out this data if I export to, say, Excel?

So instead of getting something like:

9.0 r124 55.56%
10.0 r12 16.13%
9.0 r115 14.24%
9.0 r47 11.57%
9.0 r28 5.12%
8.0 r22 3.73%
9.0 r19 2.33%
etc.

I want:

10 12%
9 55%
8 22%
etc.

Help me analyze how much time you spend looking at my stuff!

twiggy — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:26:47 -0800

Help me become a master of Google Analytics - especially as it pertains to time spent in sections of a site, etc... I'm a little confused with Google Analytics, and I'd love some insight. Googling around hasn't really answered my question...

What I really want is to be able to track the average time spent within a section of a site, not just a page.

So, let's say I've got 10 pages within a subdirectory of a site. We'll call them /content/1.html through /content/10.html, I can click on "Content" in google analytics, and narrow the results to these pages by searching for the string "/content" .. awesome!

Here's where I get a little confused: I see the average time spent on each page, and that makes sense. But I also see an average time spent up top, where it's summing up the number of visits. Is this just an average of the averages listed below, or is it really an average time spent on that whole section? So if someone viewed 1.html, 3.html, 8.html for 1 minute each - does google call that 3 minutes spent in /content? or can google not even do that?

In reality, I'm doing this with flash applications, so I can make up any hierarchy of paths I want, and there don't really have to be files there -- I'm just looking for an accurate way of tracking how much time a user is spending doing something that may involve several hits to google analytics "in the meantime"...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Porn sites are spamming my web stats. Make it stop.

Milkman Dan — Wed, 16 May 2007 10:53:16 -0800

Porn sites are spamming my web stats. Make it stop. For a few months now, my referral log has been flooded by mildly amusing, but mostly annoying, porn site URLs. These sites are throwing off my data entirely, filling the log with anywhere from 1 to 200 hits each. Almost all of them are over-the-top porn URLs. I want it to stop.

I know what the phenomenon is, and I’ve read all the other AskMe threads about it. I’m not interested in diagnostics, I want to know the cure. I run WordPress, and I’m currently running the Bad Behaviour plug-in, and have been for two months, but the problem has remained. Yes, I run Google Analytics as an alternative, but I’d like to solve the problem within this stats program (Webalizer Version 2.01), too.

Clear, step-by-step instructions would be most helpful, but any suggestions would be much appreciated. Oh, and you can click here to view my referral log from May.

google analytics goals

FidelDonson — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 02:36:07 -0800

Ive just begun using google analytics with different flash-sites. Now how do i set up goals in the admin-system and have them correspond with the names i set up in the flash files? (I cant use URLs because i use a single flash-file for the whole site)