Google Analytics Help

THE TOUCH

FYI...

I decided to try Google Analytics and just as everyone said, I had to sign up for a waiting list.

Well that was yesterday and I got the invitation TODAY.:clap

Setup so far has been pretty easy. Still working on it.

jww

THE TOUCH wrote:

FYI...

I decided to try Google Analytics and just as everyone said, I had to sign up for a waiting list.

Well that was yesterday and I got the invitation TODAY.

Cool! I was hoping it was a quick process. I submitted mine today and decided to get statcounter working in the meantime. Now for that drink someone suggested.. :

jww - jwwWebDesign.smugmug

dmc

I have both statcounter and google analytics.... Anyone know how to get the equivalent of stat counter's "visitor paths" in google analytics?

google seem heavy into summarization and analysis, but I can't get to the individual hit details...

Statcounter seems more straightforward to use IMO....

THE TOUCH

jww wrote:

Cool! I was hoping it was a quick process. I submitted mine today and decided to get statcounter working in the meantime. Now for that drink someone suggested.. :

jww - jwwWebDesign.smugmug

I got everything setup pretty easy but it says it could take up to 24 hours to download all the data.

:booze :booze :booze Time for a few drinks!

Mike Lane

Google Analytics Help
dgrinner dmc had the following question:

dmc wrote:

I have both statcounter and google analytics.... Anyone know how to get the equivalent of stat counter's "visitor paths" in google analytics?

google seem heavy into summarization and analysis, but I can't get to the individual hit details...

Statcounter seems more straightforward to use IMO....

So I decided to start a new thread to address it. MYOB seemed to be the best place for it, so here it is.

One of the things that I don't like about Analytics is that things are difficult to find. But they are there. To get to something like visitor paths you have to first make sure you have a date range that you want using the little calendars. Then you have to click on the arrow next to "Content Optimization" and then the plus sign next to "Navigational Analysis" and then "All Navigation." I think that's what you're after. To be honest I never used the statcounter visitor paths and I don't use the all navigation part of analytics.

Anyone else have any tips or tutorials they'd like to share?

mbrady

dmc wrote:

I have both statcounter and google analytics.... Anyone know how to get the equivalent of stat counter's "visitor paths" in google analytics?

google seem heavy into summarization and analysis, but I can't get to the individual hit details...

You can't. I asked Google about it awhile back and even sent them some screen shots of the visitor path stuff that StatCounter tracks, but they said they don't offer that at this point. Not sure how high on their priority list that feature would be.

THE TOUCH

So, since my thread got bumped...can I ask an actual question!?:D

For someone that works with Google Analytics -

From what it looks like, If I want to use the stats for my personal website, I have to put the code on every single page. Is this true? Or do I just need to put it on the homepage?

Thanks!

Richard

THE TOUCH wrote:

So, since my thread got bumped...can I ask an actual question!?:D

For someone that works with Google Analytics -

From what it looks like, If I want to use the stats for my personal website, I have to put the code on every single page. Is this true? Or do I just need to put it on the homepage?

Thanks!

If you have a header or footer that is included on every page, that is the easiest place to put the code. It will automatically track every page. If it is just on your homepage, it will only track hits to that page. That may be fine or it may be inadequate...depends on what information you are looking for and how people get to your site. If you don't have a header or footer and want stats on each page, then you do need to include the code on each page.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

movestill

multiple domain names
If you're using your own domain name, how do you set up Analytics to track both your domain name plus username.smugmug.com? On the Analytics help page, the suggestion it gives for this situation seems to imply that you need access to the web server itself.

I guess the easy answer is to set up a second web profile with the other domain name, but I'm guessing that there's a more elegant solution.

Thanks.

Tim

rainforest1155

movestill wrote:

If you're using your own domain name, how do you set up Analytics to track both your domain name plus username.smugmug.com? On the Analytics help page, the suggestion it gives for this situation seems to imply that you need access to the web server itself.

There's no need to set this up separately. For me Analytics tracks all pages where the code is included no matter on which domain they are accessed.

Sebastian

dmc

Mike Lane wrote:

.... To get to something like visitor paths you have to first make sure you have a date range that you want using the little calendars. Then you have to click on the arrow next to "Content Optimization" and then the plus sign next to "Navigational Analysis" and then "All Navigation." I think that's what you're after. ....

not quite the same... still summarized... also I don't think google is "real time" either.

"Visitor Paths" is the only tool in statcounter I use, tells me everything I want to know. I suppose if I had a lot more traffic, this would be too much detail. But I like how it separates each visitor (by their IP address/Provider/Location) shows me the url of where they came from, then shows me everywhere they went in my site, which pictures they clicked on (to enlarge), etc.

I think google Analytics is just what the name implies, it Analyzes... with trends, charts, summaries, statistics, but not that easy to just see who clicked where...

dmc

Statcounter-Visitor Paths example
:

THE TOUCH

rsinmadrid wrote:

If you have a header or footer that is included on every page, that is the easiest place to put the code. It will automatically track every page. If it is just on your homepage, it will only track hits to that page. That may be fine or it may be inadequate...depends on what information you are looking for and how people get to your site. If you don't have a header or footer and want stats on each page, then you do need to include the code on each page.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thank you Richard! That's just what I needed - I'll go ahead and put the code in the template. That should work...right?

movestill

thanks

rainforest1155 wrote:

There's no need to set this up separately. For me Analytics tracks all pages where the code is included no matter on which domain they are accessed.

Sebastian

Thanks for the info, Sebastian.

Tim

Mike Lane

rainforest1155 wrote:

There's no need to set this up separately. For me Analytics tracks all pages where the code is included no matter on which domain they are accessed.

Sebastian

True, but if you set up the account that way all the stats from both accounts will be mixed together. This may not be an issue for you, so doing it that way may be fine. Or it may not be what you want. For me, I'd rather have different accounts for my smugmug stats and my blog stats for example. So I set up 2 different things for it.

rainforest1155

Mike Lane wrote:

True, but if you set up the account that way all the stats from both accounts will be mixed together. This may not be an issue for you, so doing it that way may be fine. Or it may not be what you want. For me, I'd rather have different accounts for my smugmug stats and my blog stats for example. So I set up 2 different things for it.

Did I miss anything? Where did Tim say anything about a blog. I think his concern was with his 2 different addresses for his smugmug site - the user.smugmug.com and his custom domain cnamed to his smugmug site.

Sure for the blog I've set up another Analytics account, but there's no need to configure the account any further - you just put the accounts code into the site you want to be monitored without regard to any domain name stuff.
Of course you can also create some filter rules to do stuff, but I've no need for it.
The only filter I've set is to prevent Analytics to count my own hits based on a cookie I've set.

Sebastian

Richard

rainforest1155 wrote:

The only filter I've set is to prevent Analytics to count my own hits based on a cookie I've set.

Sebastian

Hey Sebastian, how did you set a cookie for Google? The only filter mechanism I could find was IP address. Since I don't have a static IP address myself, it doesn't work all that well for me. A cookie (as in Statcounter) would be much better.

Cheers,

rainforest1155

rsinmadrid wrote:

Hey Sebastian, how did you set a cookie for Google? The only filter mechanism I could find was IP address. Since I don't have a static IP address myself, it doesn't work all that well for me. A cookie (as in Statcounter) would be much better.

I mailed their support a long time ago about it and got the following answear:

GoogleAnalyticsSupport wrote:

Hello Sebastian,

Thank you for your email. It is possible to exclude visits from particular
users from your reports, using a cookie rather than IP addresses. The
instructions below will tell you how to create a page that sets the cookie
through a JavaScript function, and to create a filter to exclude all
visitors with this cookie from your Analytics reports.

Setting the cookie:

Create a new page on your domain, containing the following code:

<body onLoad="javascript:__utmSetVar("no_report")">

Visit this page from all computers that you would like to exclude from
your reports, to set the cookie on each machine.

Creating the filter:

You'll need to create an Exclude filter to remove data from visitors with
this cookie. Follow the instructions at
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=27207&topic=2970
to create a filter with the following settings:

Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude
Filter Field: User Defined
Filter Pattern: no_report
Case Sensitive: No

For additional questions regarding e-commerce, goals, filters, tracking
and setup questions, please visit the Analytics Help Center at
http://www.google.com/support/analytics. If you're unable to find an
answer to your question on our site, please feel free to reply to this
email.

Sincerely,

Analytics Support

For creating the blocking cookie I created a private on my smugmug site that includes
<html><script language="javascript">
__utmSetVar("no_report");
</script></html>
in the gallery description. In order to block a specific browser from being logged, you just have to visit the gallery once to set the cookie.

Hope this helps,
Sebastian

Richard

Great. Thanks Sebastian. When I sent them a note about it, I only got a Googlebot reply thanking me for my suggestion.

Cheers,

marlinspike

Google analytics question
We really should have a google analytics help sticky. Is there a way, using GA, to see how people are being referred to individual web pages (i.e. how people get to such and such picture not just how peopel get to my website)?

Andy

marlinspike wrote:

We really should have a google analytics help sticky. Is there a way, using GA, to see how people are being referred to individual web pages (i.e. how people get to such and such picture not just how peopel get to my website)?

We don't need more stickys
The search tool, is your friend
Or, site search on Google. I typed in site:www.dgrin.com google analytics, to find this thread, into which I merged your question.

digitalpins

marlinspike wrote:

We really should have a google analytics help sticky. Is there a way, using GA, to see how people are being referred to individual web pages (i.e. how people get to such and such picture not just how peopel get to my website)?

not sure if their is I am using both actually thats both Google Analytics & Statcounter and on Statcounter it shows how people get to you site with alot more info also.

marlinspike

Back to statcounter for me. I didn't want to be bombarding my visitors with cookies, but I guess I will and use both stat counter and analytics.

mike_flood

dmc wrote:

I have both statcounter and google analytics.... Anyone know how to get the equivalent of stat counter's "visitor paths" in google analytics?

google seem heavy into summarization and analysis, but I can't get to the individual hit details...<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/umph.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

Statcounter seems more straightforward to use IMO....

I was hoping to find out how to include this stuff.

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-433142-1";
urchinTracker();
</script>

But so far haven't stumbled on to the place to insert/edit html code.
Anyone know that?

Mike Lane

mike_flood wrote:

I was hoping to find out how to include this stuff.

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-433142-1";
urchinTracker();
</script>

But so far haven't stumbled on to the place to insert/edit html code.
Anyone know that?

You have to be a power or pro user of smugmug in order to be able to insert that in your site.

PHOTOlink

so, just where does one place this code if indeed you are a pro user...?


adam

Mike Lane wrote:

You have to be a power or pro user of smugmug in order to be able to insert that in your site.

FatNakedGuy

marlinspike wrote:

Back to statcounter for me. I didn't want to be bombarding my visitors with cookies, but I guess I will and use both stat counter and analytics.

Bro, it is OK to bombard people with cookies but my recommendation would be to also offer them a large ice cold glass of milk to go with those cookies. Can't beat cookies and milk on a hot summers day!

Andy

PHOTOlink wrote:

so, just where does one place this code if indeed you are a pro user...?


adam

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092794
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1092684

pwc

Bump, as I found the info about filtering for your own visits via a cookie handy