Comments on: Google Analytics Tip 2: tracking visitors on different domains or subdomains http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/ How web analytics can transform your marketing effectiveness and business decisions Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:05:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Marianina Manning http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-517 Marianina Manning Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:56:30 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-517 Hi Erica Thanks so much for commenting and for your question. I have been away with work so quite tied up. Anyway, in answer to your question. I'll post a response on my blog tomorrow morning. Re But, do we keep the UA code XXXX-1 or XXXX-4? Then, do we apply that code to both sites? Or do we leave them as-is, with each subdomain having its own UA code, but with the _udn code, rolling up to the www.company.com domain? I don't know all the details here, but in essence it could be simpler to only use one UA code for both www.company.com and register.company.com - and then set up different profiles to track for example just one part of the site(s) using the advanced filters you can access from within google analytics. Because it would be alot easier to see overall site traffic, navigation etc, for all subdomains, if it was on one google analytics account. and then set up the _udn="company.com" to all pages on both subdomains etc Is there a specific reason why there are separate UA codes set up for the different subdomains when they are I believe the same website? Hope that makes sense Marianina Hi Erica
Thanks so much for commenting and for your question. I have been away with work so quite tied up.

Anyway, in answer to your question. I’ll post a response on my blog tomorrow morning.

Re But, do we keep the UA code XXXX-1 or XXXX-4? Then, do we apply that code to both sites? Or do we leave them as-is, with each subdomain having its own UA code, but with the _udn code, rolling up to the http://www.company.com domain?

I don’t know all the details here, but in essence it could be simpler to only use one UA code for both http://www.company.com and register.company.com – and then set up different profiles to track for example just one part of the site(s) using the advanced filters you can access from within google analytics.
Because it would be alot easier to see overall site traffic, navigation etc, for all subdomains, if it was on one google analytics account.
and then set up the _udn=”company.com” to all pages on both subdomains etc

Is there a specific reason why there are separate UA codes set up for the different subdomains when they are I believe the same website?

Hope that makes sense
Marianina

]]> By: Erica http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-498 Erica Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:09:33 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-498 Hello! I've been going crazy trying to figure this out, regarding which "UA-XXXX-X" code to use in multiple subdomains... Situation: we have www.company.com and register.company.com. "www" is the main site and has the UA code XXXX-1. "Register" is a secure site for subscriptions, and has the UA code XXXX-4. From what I've read, we need to add the _udn="company.com" line to all the pages on both subdomains to view data in one report. But, do we keep the UA code XXXX-1 or XXXX-4? Then, do we apply that code to both sites? Or do we leave them as-is, with each subdomain having its own UA code, but with the _udn code, rolling up to the www.company.com domain? Thank you very much for your insights! Hello! I’ve been going crazy trying to figure this out, regarding which “UA-XXXX-X” code to use in multiple subdomains…

Situation: we have http://www.company.com and register.company.com.

“www” is the main site and has the UA code XXXX-1.

“Register” is a secure site for subscriptions, and has the UA code XXXX-4.

From what I’ve read, we need to add the _udn=”company.com” line to all the pages on both subdomains to view data in one report.

But, do we keep the UA code XXXX-1 or XXXX-4? Then, do we apply that code to both sites? Or do we leave them as-is, with each subdomain having its own UA code, but with the _udn code, rolling up to the http://www.company.com domain?

Thank you very much for your insights!

]]> By: Marianina Chaplin http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-416 Marianina Chaplin Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:37:14 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-416 Hi Andres, Thanks so much for your question. What GA documentation does is tell us what do if we either have subdomain OR multi-domains. To track across multiple domains AND subdomains, you have to use this extra _uhash variable in your tracking. But if you only have subdomains or if you only have different domains then you don't need to use _uhash and only need to use udn and ulink. Does that help? Marianina Hi Andres,
Thanks so much for your question. What GA documentation does is tell us what do if we either have subdomain OR multi-domains. To track across multiple domains AND subdomains, you have to use this extra _uhash variable in your tracking.

But if you only have subdomains or if you only have different domains then you don’t need to use _uhash and only need to use udn and ulink.
Does that help?
Marianina

]]> By: Andrés http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-412 Andrés Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:07:13 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-412 Hi Marianina, There is no reference to the _uhash=off line in GA support. Are you sure multiple domain tracking in a single account will fail if this variable is set to on. thanks, Andrés Hi Marianina,

There is no reference to the _uhash=off line in GA support. Are you sure multiple domain tracking in a single account will fail if this variable is set to on.

thanks,

Andrés

]]> By: Marianina Chaplin http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-378 Marianina Chaplin Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:45:58 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-378 Hi Juan, As you correctly identified, Google analytics will treat index.php as one item - unless you you set up an advanced filter which allows the whole host name or uri to be viewed within google analytics. If you go to this post, it show exactly how to add the advanced filter. http://marianina.com/blog/2007/07/28/google-analytics-tip-1-naming-your-webpages/ Thanks, Marianina Hi Juan,
As you correctly identified, Google analytics will treat index.php as one item – unless you you set up an advanced filter which allows the whole host name or uri to be viewed within google analytics. If you go to this post, it show exactly how to add the advanced filter.
http://marianina.com/blog/2007/07/28/google-analytics-tip-1-naming-your-webpages/
Thanks,
Marianina

]]> By: Juan Damia http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-362 Juan Damia Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:17:48 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-362 Hi Marianina, I had a problem regarding this issue some time ago and was terrible to get some help. I've solved the problem in a different way, but this one seems to be more effective. Just one question. With this solution if we have the following structure: 1- product.com/index.php 2- store.company.com/index.php 3- company.com/index.php Will Google analytics count all the index.php pages together? or as three different pages? Thanks Marianina!!! Hi Marianina, I had a problem regarding this issue some time ago and was terrible to get some help.
I’ve solved the problem in a different way, but this one seems to be more effective. Just one question. With this solution if we have the following structure:
1- product.com/index.php
2- store.company.com/index.php
3- company.com/index.php
Will Google analytics count all the index.php pages together? or as three different pages?

Thanks Marianina!!!

]]> By: Marianina Chaplin http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-291 Marianina Chaplin Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:35:27 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-291 Hi Brendan, Multi-domain tracking in a realistic way is difficult with Google analytics because it uses first party cookies. I don't know any javascript snippet for passing cookies between domains, although they may exist. Other ways I don't think work eg if you try passing GA domains in the header via header direction then it may not work because the checksum that is created may not match therefore a new set of cookies would be created (whereas utmlinker attaches the checksum to the url). One website I worked on had so many domains and links between them that we went for a paid for solution in the end - primarily just because of this utmlinker issue. The paid for solutions track first and third party cookies so you don't have this problem (no need to add utmlinkers at all) - there are solutions such as clicktracks or indextools that start at very reasonably prices. Otherwise, it will just take a very long time with google analytics to add utmlinkers to every single link! Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Marianina Hi Brendan, Multi-domain tracking in a realistic way is difficult with Google analytics because it uses first party cookies. I don’t know any javascript snippet for passing cookies between domains, although they may exist.
Other ways I don’t think work eg if you try passing GA domains in the header via header direction then it may not work because the checksum that is created may not match therefore a new set of cookies would be created (whereas utmlinker attaches the checksum to the url).
One website I worked on had so many domains and links between them that we went for a paid for solution in the end – primarily just because of this utmlinker issue. The paid for solutions track first and third party cookies so you don’t have this problem (no need to add utmlinkers at all) – there are solutions such as clicktracks or indextools that start at very reasonably prices.
Otherwise, it will just take a very long time with google analytics to add utmlinkers to every single link!
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Marianina

]]> By: Brendan Halloran http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-282 Brendan Halloran Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:07:08 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-282 Thanks for your response Marianina. Manually adding utmlinker tags to every link between our multiple domains and subdomains would be a very time consuming task. Would it be possible to create some JavaScript code to automate this process? I am aware of other JavaScript code that is available for Google Analytics that automates the tracking of other onclick events such as outbound link and file download tracking. Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated. Thanks, Brendan. Thanks for your response Marianina.

Manually adding utmlinker tags to every link between our multiple domains and subdomains would be a very time consuming task.

Would it be possible to create some JavaScript code to automate this process? I am aware of other JavaScript code that is available for Google Analytics that automates the tracking of other onclick events such as outbound link and file download tracking.

Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Brendan.

]]> By: Marianina Chaplin http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-280 Marianina Chaplin Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:14:33 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-280 <b>Hi Brendan,</b> Yes you are absolutely right. You need to add the utmlinker every time someone goes from one domain to another - I did write this in my post re- "You also need to make sure you add these extra variables to every webpage/tag where visitors can navigate from one domain or subdomain to another." but it probably wasn't clear enough that you would be adding the udn variables eg utmlinker to the on-click function if this is the way that one is navigating from one page on one domain to another page on another domain via a clickable button for example. Hope that's ok. <b>Hi Joel</b> - thanks so much for commenting. I think that we can all agree that official google analytics documentation is not as clear as it could be. Hi Brendan, Yes you are absolutely right. You need to add the utmlinker every time someone goes from one domain to another – I did write this in my post re- “You also need to make sure you add these extra variables to every webpage/tag where visitors can navigate from one domain or subdomain to another.”
but it probably wasn’t clear enough that you would be adding the udn variables eg utmlinker to the on-click function if this is the way that one is navigating from one page on one domain to another page on another domain via a clickable button for example.
Hope that’s ok.
Hi Joel – thanks so much for commenting. I think that we can all agree that official google analytics documentation is not as clear as it could be.

]]> By: Joel http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/comment-page-1/#comment-276 Joel Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:02:54 +0000 http://marianina.com/blog/2007/08/28/google-analytics-tip-2-tracking-visitors-on-different-domains-or-subdomains/#comment-276 Thanks Marianina, the situation is that the final steps of the purchase path are on a separate sub domain (e.g. www.domain.com and secure.domain.com). Oddly enough I HAD actually seen some goal conversions before which I am suprised at because I had not previously set up the UDN variable and thought that GA would not track it properly without this. Odd eh? Also, http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=27268&ctx=sibling indicates that _udn needs to be the same as the website url in the main GA profile. I would have thought it was just an arbitrary string for association pruposes. thanks Joel Thanks Marianina,
the situation is that the final steps of the purchase path are on a separate sub domain (e.g. http://www.domain.com and secure.domain.com). Oddly enough I HAD actually seen some goal conversions before which I am suprised at because I had not previously set up the UDN variable and thought that GA would not track it properly without this. Odd eh?

Also, http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=27268&ctx=sibling indicates that _udn needs to be the same as the website url in the main GA profile. I would have thought it was just an arbitrary string for association pruposes.

thanks

Joel

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