Setting up Google Analytics default URL

[CeCeBar]

If someone has set:

1. the default url in Google Analytics to a non-www address (http://mysite.com)

2. then placed the UA tracking script from that GA account within the CMS framework of the website...

3. ... 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

[CeCeBar]

Got it, very helpful - thanks so much!

_Cindy

[adrianvender1]

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.html

3 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:

https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!category-topic/analytics/discuss-issues-related-to-your-accounts-reports-and-data/wEoiR4kQStQ

[CeCeBar]

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

[adrianvender1]

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.

[CeCeBar]

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

[RobMay]

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