Virtual Pageviews vs. Destination URL for Goal tracking
-
I am working on setting up goal tracking. Currently when we receive a new signup, the person gets sent to their dashboard homepage and this is not a valuable a goal tracking destination. My suggestion was to build a "Welcome" interstitial page to send a user to when they create an account.
Our tech team suggested using a Virtual pageview instead as it is their thinking that a "Welcome" page adds little value.
Is there any downside to using Virtual Pageviews with regards to goal tracking?
Are interstitial page more reliable?
Can you still use funnel visualization with Virtual Pageviews? -
Hi Eric,
It all depends a bit on your site and particular setup. Virtual views might not affect your other numbers much at all depending on which metrics are important for you. If you are using virtual views for new registrations only then it doesn't sound like it would be much of a problem (users are already into the funnel, converted and then do their next steps). It is in essence the same as adding the real welcome page in that respect.
As for multiple conversions, it depends where you are looking at them. GA counts goals by session, adwords (which is where the many per click numbers are) counts conversions a bit differently. Check this page for an overview on the differences.
-
Thanks for the response. Yes, the bounce rate and time on site data will definitely be off with VPVs. To scrub the data we could create a GA profile. If we did that, though, would that remove the goals as well?
If we decide to use a real Welcome page as our goal tracking success page, what happens if a user clicks off the welcome page and then clicks the back button? Wouldn't that then trigger another conversion or would that simply be counted in the many-per-click-column? Our developers mentioned using a "trigger on first view" script. Would that solve the problem?
-
Hi Eric,
Analytics treats real page views and virtual page views as the same thing so yes you can use virtual page views in funnel visualization and other relevant reports. As long as the virtual page view is set up ok it should be as reliable as a real page. The only 'downside' is that since virtual views are counted as real views it can have an effect on other metrics/reports that use page views (pages per visit for example) but this doesn't sound like it would be an issue in your case.
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
-
How is this site being tracked in GA?
Hi, Bit of an unusual one this, so please bear with me. This site http://www.hayesandhurst.com/ is being tracked in Google Analytics but we're unsure as to how. To the best of our knowledge we haven't inserted the tracking ID into the theme options or the tracking code into the source - and yet it appears to be tracking successfully! I did send some instructions to the client to set up the Analytics account in their name - I fear they have added the code somewhere to the site, but we cannot see where! Perhaps via Google tag Manager?? As I say, an odd one this, but if anyone can shed any light on this mystery i'd be hugely grateful. The tracking ID is UA-64505394-1 for the record. Regards,
Reporting & Analytics | | nathangdavidson
Nathan0 -
Google Analytics Goal/Event/SOMETHING to show only Wordpress "Posts", not pages, etc
Hi all, Our site is build on Wordpress and formerly the post URL's had the typical date format at the beginning. This made it easy for me to look at, for example, all search traffic to the blog. I would just view URL's containing /2014/ and /2015/ and boom. We have since removed the dates from the URL's with proper redirects etc, which is great, but now I can't figure out a way to look at ONLY the blog in GA. I like to track a KPI of 'search visits to blog posts' and I can't figure out how to now. Can I set up a GA event that only fires when the post type template for blog posts loads? Some other solution? I'm lost here, and there's gotta be a good way to do it...
Reporting & Analytics | | 3DR0 -
Tracking Clicks on a Global Header Across Multiple Sites
Hey All, A particular client has multiple websites and we're planning on implementing a global header across 15+ sites. I've been looking for a way to track the clicks on this global header across all sites (that is that they are summed up), what's the best way to go about this if I am using Google Analytics (I know Adobe site catalyst could do this no problem with some advanced tweaking), any ideas? I could do the general click tracking route and tag every link but that will only help me if I do that for each site (that being said, if the global header for all sites pulls from a single HTML, then tagging it would technically count all the clicks from all the sites, the only caveat being that I'd have to pick which Google analytics profile I'd want to track the header with). Thoughts? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | EvansHunt0 -
March 1st Decline in Visits and Pageviews
This site was upgraded from Joomla 1 to Joomla 3 and launched on Feb 27th. The SEF structure has not changed. The extension sh404sef tracks the 404s and there are only a few dozen from mistyped urls, so I have to assume the historical ranking has not been affected. How can I figure out why there is such a decline on March 1st from 4400 to 1500 visits? Is it coincidence after the new launch or did something happen with google on March 1st? http://transitionconsultants.com Screenshot%202014-04-11%2009.47.05.png
Reporting & Analytics | | modernmagic0 -
Are RSS fees tracked by Google Analytics?
In both the new GA and former version, how are RSS feeds handled by Google Analytics. If not, is there an easy means by which to account for this traffic, in order to have a better picture of traffic. Thanks. Alan
Reporting & Analytics | | ahw0 -
Magento and Analytics - Unique purchases tracking
Hi guys, My ecommerce site is on Magento and in order to integrate it with Google Analytics, I enter my GA account number on the Account Number field in the backend. What surprises me is that some purchases are not tracked at all. So for the month of may GA shows X unique purchases when Magento shows x+5. Can this occur because the customer leaves the site before the confirmation page is shown? Thanks. Regards
Reporting & Analytics | | footd0 -
Google Analytics: Do url redirects show up
Good Morning from 6 degrees c mostly cloudy wetherby UK 🙂 A redirect has been set up with the effect that when you key in www.hyload.co.uk it forwards to www.ikogroup.co.uk My question is please...within Google analytics will referall traffic from www.hyload.co.uk show up in referral traffic or because its a redirect will it be counted as direct traffic. Thanks in advance, David
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Campaign tracking and duplicate content
Hi all, When you set up campaign tracking in Google Analytics you get something like this "?variable=value parameters" in the URL. If you place such a link on your site as an internal link, will it be considered as a different URL and will have its own link value? The question I have is, since Google knows it's a Google link and knows the original URL (by stripping the tags), does it pass link value to the original URL? If not, what can be done to pass link value? Thanks in advance. Henry
Reporting & Analytics | | hnydnn0