Possible to attribute SM gallery views to main website domain

MariW

Hi folks, I'm new here and haven't managed to find the answer I'm looking for by searching, though I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this question, so if anyone can share a link where this was already answered, I'd be most appreciative...

I'm wondering if it's possible to integrate smugmug into a website in such a way that the main domain would get credit for the hits or clicks when people viewed photos (instead of just using a masked url where the clicks are being attributed to SM behind the scenes), but that viewers could actually be looking directly at the smugmug interface/page instead of just at a gallery widget or plugin placed on my own site? I feel like I've seen photographer sites that appear as though I'm looking at a customized smugmug page, but that show a direct domain (like www.mypictures.org or www.mypictures.org/gallery) and wasn't sure if it was all masking, or if actual integration and using SM as a platform of sorts was possible.

I'm working with a website that's currently based in wordpress and is using a plugin to generate SM slideshows on one of the WP pages, but it's not really visually appealing, and it doesn't offer functionality such as sharing images to social media or providing direct URLs to specific photos, hence my desire to just use smugmug directly so long as it doesn't appear in analytic as though all of the existing website traffic suddenly dropped off.

I'm not sure if this is an obviously stupid "of course you can't do that!" question, or if it's totally possible and easy, so apologies if it's the former.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

*whoops, I just realized I posted this in the 'cry for help' area for Dgrin itself... I misread/misundestood the forum name. Sigh, obviously I'm new here... thank you in advance to whichever moderator ends up moving this to the correct place...*

denisegoldberg

You can set up a custom domain. See help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93340-how-do-i-use-my-custom-domain-.

You will need to check analytics for both your wordpress site and for your smugmug site.

--- Denise

MariW

Thanks Denise Although this is helpful info, I'm not wondering how to set it up with two separate analytics (that's what we have now that is problematic) - but whether there's a way to integrate so all hits to be credited to the main domain. The organization is partly funded by sponsorships/advertising space, and so they need to be able to demonstrate the same continued level of traffic. When they switched over from a built in Wordpress gallery to Smugmug and url masking, it became an issue (why it would make any difference in execution, I don't know, but it sounds like its a big deal somewhere along the way).

Thanks though very much!

Edit: *ah, just looked at your website, I love it! The ways yours is set up is what I presumed it should look like in the end, but I'm guessing you did yours the same way showed in that link, right? if so, maybe we just need to figure out why it's an issue and use combined analytics. Hmmm... something to think on.*

denisegoldberg

MariW wrote: »

Thanks Denise Although this is helpful info, I'm not wondering how to set it up with two separate analytics (that's what we have now that is problematic) - but whether there's a way to integrate so all hits to be credited to the main domain. The organization is partly funded by sponsorships/advertising space, and so they need to be able to demonstrate the same continued level of traffic. When they switched over from a built in Wordpress gallery to Smugmug and url masking, it became an issue (why it would make any difference in execution, I don't know, but it sounds like its a big deal somewhere along the way).

Thanks though very much!

Edit: *ah, just looked at your website, I love it! The ways yours is set up is what I presumed it should look like in the end, but I'm guessing you did yours the same way showed in that link, right? if so, maybe we just need to figure out why it's an issue and use combined analytics. Hmmm... something to think on.*

I'm not sure what you mean by URL masking relative to smug. If you want a custom domain to work properly you must follow the directions on the help page I mentioned above.

I'm not sure what it would look like from a looking at stats standpoint if you used the same overall domain for your two sites but used a subdomain for one. For example, your blog might be www.yoursite.com where your smugmug site might be photos.yoursite.com. That probably makes the most sense though, as opposed to using two totally separate domains. You may still need to look at stats results for the two pages separately.

--- Denise

pilotdave

Not sure if it would work as expected, but couldn't you just use the same google analytics / statcounter accounts on both sites and keep them separate? Not sure if those services work properly that way but I don't see why not.

Dave

MariW

Thank you both, I appreciate the help!