Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Setting up Google Analytics default URL
-
If someone has set:
-
the default url in Google Analytics to a non-www address (http://mysite.com)
-
then placed the UA tracking script from that GA account within the CMS framework of the website...
-
... and then set the permanent 301 redirect in the htaccess file to redirect to the www address (http://www.mysite.com).
How less accurrate will my GA analytics measurements be considering the default url within GA is non-www and the permanent 301 redirect in htacess is to the www-address?
Anyone know how reliable GA reports are until the default url in GA analytics is changed to match what is the redirected url in htaccess file?
_Cindy
-
-
Got it, very helpful - thanks so much!
_Cindy
-
Hostname injection is when you add the hostname value to the beginning of the content URI. Instead of seeing just '/index.html' in the content URI reports, you would see 'www.mysite.com/index.html'. This is helpful when you are tracking across multiple subdomains and you need to tell the difference between files on your different subdomains. You would see the following, as an example:
www.mysite.com/index.html
blog.mysite.com/index.html
store.mysite.com/index.html3 different pages on different subdomains. Without adding the hostname, they would have rolled up into a single '/index.html' line and it would be difficult to know which subdomains they are from.
More info on setting up the filter can be found here:
-
OK, thank you.
If I understand correctly, the tracking code for a single site did the work of tracking visitors, and the 301 redirect didn't change the tracking results -- even though the "301 redirected address" was at one time different from the "GA default url."
If I may ask, what is a hostname injection? And if possible please explain a use case example where hostname injection is used.
_Cindy
-
The 'Default URL' field in a Property Settings screen will do a few different things:
- Prefill a setDomainName value for your tracking code if you select tracking for multiple subdomains or domains. I'm just noting in here, since none of what you described would be a cookie domain issue.
- The Default URL would be would be prepended to the content URI when you are viewing content reports and click the icon to view the page in a new window.
What I'll emphasize is that your Default URL value will have no effect on your data collection. It's simply not used in any data processing. There are many use cases for having an empty Default URL, for example, if you are doing a hostname injection into your content URIs and you don't need another hostname prepended when you attempt to open a content URI in a new window, like I described in the 2nd option.
Hope this helps.
-
Everything is consistent now - 301 redirect to www, default url in GA set to www.
Tracking code has remained the same within cms because the GA account's url was changed to go to www.
It is a matter of too many chefs in kitchen and no one had control of entire picture at one point.
My question really is... when there was inconsistency in web address from 301 redirect (www-address) and the GA default url (non-www), why was GA still receiving traffic?
And how much can one rely on older metrics when this inconsistency was in place?
_Cindy
-
Hi Cindy -
Why would you set the default URL to non-www, and then set GA to track the WWW address? I think you should send all your traffic and tracking to one or the other. That's the first step in cleaning this up.
I would suggest mapping everything to the www version as you have this set in for your 301. Sooner than later would be best to get accurate tracking started.
oh - and fix the tracking code - to include the WWW version and not the non-www. That also needs fixing.
Cheers, Rob
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is Local SEO in Google Analytics (Organic Source)
Recently, I saw "Local SEO" is mentioned as the organic source. Can someone please tell what is this and from where Google is fetching data for this source?
Reporting & Analytics | | Kevin.Monks0 -
Would updating Meta Titles affect Google analytics tracking?
Hi All, I need a little bit of help. We need to optimize our blog's articles Meta titles for SEO which all exceed 100 characters. I was told that if we change the titles, google analytics would split the tracking pages and count the data as 2 pages (old title and new title). Has any of you have this experience before and if so, is there a way to avoid google analytics counting this as two pages? Thanks in advance! Viviana http://analyteguru.com/ http://analyteguru.com/ http://analyteguru.com/
Reporting & Analytics | | mchoi0 -
Google Analytics - Average Position
Hi Just trying to get some clarity on Google Analytics Average Positions in "Aquistions/Search Engine Optimisation". For a very competitive keyword Google Analytics is saying i am on average position of 6. Is this Page 6? I am assuming position six would be 1.6?
Reporting & Analytics | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
How does Google Maps/G+ traffic show up in Analytics?
Hi Moz Community, I've been trying to figure out how traffic from Google Maps (and G+) shows up in Google Analytics and am struggling to find a good answer online. If someone finds a business through Google Maps and then clicks on the website in the Maps listing, does that show up as a referral from Google Maps? Our site shows virtually zero traffic from Google Maps even though we have a number of listing. Two related questions: if someone clicks through to a G+ page from a Maps result and then visits our website from the G+ page, does that show up in Analytics as a referral from G+? Is traffic from Google Maps or G+ ALSO counted as organic traffic? (Would it be possible to accidentally double-count a visit as both organic and a referral from Maps/G+? Thanks everybody!
Reporting & Analytics | | JohnGroves0 -
% Change - Google analytics - how to calculate?
Hi All,
Reporting & Analytics | | JohnPalmer
I have two dates with two different numbers I want to calculate the "% Change" like google analytics, The numbers of June 2015 - 127,931 sessions
The numbers of June 2014 - 90914 sessions please tell me what is the %Change. Best. J0 -
Why google stubbornly keeps indexing my http urls instead of the https ones?
I moved everything to https in November, but there are plenty of pages which are still indexed by google as http instead of https, and I am wondering why. Example: http://www.gomme-auto.it/pneumatici/barum correctly redirect permanently to https://www.gomme-auto.it/pneumatici/barum Nevertheless if you search for pneumatici barum: https://www.google.it/search?q=pneumatici+barum&oq=pneumatici+barum The third organic result listed is still http. Since we moved to https google crawler visited that page tens of time, last one two days ago. But doesn't seems to care to update the protocol in google index. Anyone knows why? My concern is when I use API like semrush and ahrefs I have to do it twice to try both http and https, for a total of around 65k urls I waste a lot of my quota.
Reporting & Analytics | | max.favilli0 -
Set Up of Goal Tracking with Google Analytics-$750 a Fair Price????
Greetings Moz Community! My firm operates commercial real estate website that contains 3-4 forms. Each form represents a goals. Google Analytics has been set up for years, but it does not track these form completions/goals properly. My SEO firm has offered to configure Goals on Google Analytics for $750. Is this a fair price? If the set up takes one hour, I am really over paying. But if this is a complex project that may take 7-9 hours the pricing seems OK. Also, the SEO firm will require an additional $750 in the future to set up event tracking. Is this excessive? I might add that my developer will need to add code to my web site. My SEO company has proven reliable and accurate. I can go to sleep at night knowing they are doing a good job. Where as my Argentinian developers really try their best, but perhaps because of the language barrier, they can make mistakes from time to time. I am willing to pay a premium to ensure that the job is done correctly domestically, however I don't appreciate over paying. Is the $750 payment for setting up Google Analytics reasonable assuming the job is done well??? Thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | Kingalan1
Alan0 -
How to remove unwanted dynamic parameters from a URL in Google Analytics
Hi, Would really appreciate some help with this. I have been experimenting with RegEx to achieve this but as I’ve never used it before am currently failing miserably. We have conversion pages i need to set goals for that are formatted as below: https://www.domain.co.uk//Application_Form/(S(ewhbqp5cki0mppuzukunkqno))/enterCardDetails.aspx I need to remove the (s(xxx)) section from the URL as rather than one pages i currently have thousands of unique URL's. What’s catching me out is that as it’s not a URL parameter I can’t discount and as half way through can’t just do head matches etc to /entercarddetails Help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sarbs0