This article was written for Universal Analytics, which will stop processing data in July 2023 as Google switches to GA4. As GA4 requires almost completely new configuration, check out Google's migration guide here, or, for a complete done-for-you solution, I recommend Mediauthentic. . Adding a custom dimension to Google Analytics involves several interconnected parts: the ... Read more
In late 2018, Facebook began appending "fbclid" query strings to the ends of all outbound URLs originating from Facebook's site. These URLs take the format &fbclid=IwAR0Ylspg9Zo1-4JLuy5L3N7RhNTHg5BETDMlsQkUST8QC1JCo3iC6-54_PQ, and are appended to all outbound content, both FB ads as well as organic posts. This post will show you how to remove this parameter from your Google Analytics ... Read more
Google Analytics provides a super-easy method of tracking onsite search keywords: simply identify which query string (aka parameter) holds the onsite search term for your site, and enter that value at Admin > View > Site Search Settings. You can find your search query string by performing a search on your site and checking the ... Read more
A histogram is a type of chart that visually shows the distribution of data. It's useful when looking at the average or median of a data set, to understand whether that data point is common or not. For example, an ecommerce dashboard will typically include an Average Order Value metric. Say this metric is $50. ... Read more
HOW TO NAME EVENTS IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS This post describes one proven naming strategy for Google Analytics event tracking. Event naming is critical for using Google Analytics event reporting hierarchy and drill-down structures. With a good naming system it will be easy for users to identify events they're interested in and break them down by where ... Read more
While Google Analytics provides many reports and metrics designed to evaluate the effectiveness of content marketing, there is no report showing the conversion rates of specific posts or pages on your site. For example, if you're tracking registrations on your site, you may want to know which specific posts are associated with signups, even if ... Read more
In response to many questions about tracking IP addresses in Google Analytics, this is a follow-up post to Get Visitor IP Address with Google Tag Manager. Please follow the instructions in that post first to collect visitor IP address into a GTM Variable and create a GTM event. Once those steps are complete, you can follow ... Read more
Google Analytics' e-commerce tracking is generally the most developer-intensive part of a Google Analytics implementation, because it requires a developer-built data layer on the transaction confirmation page. The data layer collects all the relevant data -- the transaction ID, the checkout total, the product names, the prices, and so on -- and lays them out ... Read more
If you have a blog or work with content, you will likely want to know which type of posts are viewed most frequently by your readers. Google Analytics provides a lot of options for tracking content: it will show you what specific posts were the most viewed in the Top Pages report, allows you to ... Read more
This post provides downloadable Google Tag Manager (GTM) scripts and a walkthrough of the necessary steps for getting clickstream data out of Google Analytics. This clickstream data already exists behind the scenes; every time a user takes a tracked action on your website, like viewing a page or clicking a button, the data about that ... Read more
