arnold Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 I am using Google Analytics <http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html> to track visitors to our website. (For more information, please see "What is Google Analytics?" at the bottom of this message (3).)Google provides the information below (1) on how to add its script to web pages one wants tracking information on. Below that (2) is the Google provided script I need to enter. (Please note that I substituted XXXXXX-X for the actual number.)I want to enter the script in TNG's searchform.php file. I assume that that is the file most often accessed on our website. I usually do a poor a job of altering Darrin's .php files and thus need an assist.Where in searchform.php file should I enter the script? (1)------------------------------------------------------Instructions for adding trackingCopy the following code block into every webpage you want to track.Click in the box below to select all code. Next, copy it. Then, paste the code segment after the <head>, <meta> tags and before the </head> tag on each page you are planning to track.------------------------------------------------------(2)------------------------------------------------------<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-XXXXXX-X";urchinTracker();</script>------------------------------------------------------(3)------------------------------------------------------What is Google Analytics?Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance the visitor experience. Improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web.With over 80 reports, your free Google Analytics account will track visitors through your site, and will keep track of the performance of your marketing campaigns - whether they're AdWords campaigns, email campaigns, or any other advertising program. With this information, you'll know which keywords are really working, which ad text is the most effective, and where your visitors are dropping off during the conversion process. Don't be fooled by the fact that this functionality is available to you for free - Google Analytics is a full-featured, powerful analytics package.AdWords advertisers can find all of these benefits from within their AdWords account - Google Analytics has been fully integrated with AdWords. All of your reports and settings are available from the Analytics tab.To get started with Google Analytics, simply visit www.google.com/analytics or click the Analytics tab in your AdWords account. You'll be guided through a simple sign-up process, that will require the addition of a code snippet. Once that's done, you'll start gathering data immediately, on track for improved ROI! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 Would Topmenu or Footer be the most accessed?That is where I keep my counters. Maybe not appropriate for you?William Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve30000 Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 I actually just started looking at Google Analytics today for another project I am working on.I don't think the searchform.php file is the one that you will want to insert the Google Analytics code into. This is because the code is tracking how the user got to that page so most of the time it will be from the index.php file and will not tell you anything useful.I think it will be difficult to use Google Analytics to analyze your website as it appears that the program does not like generated pages (from what I read it does not handle passing variables via URL very well). You may be able to use it on more static pages such as index, surnames, photos, history, etc. Unfortunately, I don't you will be able to analyze how people are entering your website if they are going to a specific individual instead of the main page.I'll let you know if I find anything different as I explore Google Analytics with my other project.Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve30000 Posted May 26, 2006 Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 So has anyone found anything interesting with Google Analytics? I just received my google invitation today. It was meant for a project that I was working on back at the beginning of year so I'm not sure if I'm going to still use it for that or maybe something else. Just wondering if it was worth using on my genealogy site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rush Posted May 26, 2006 Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 I find some things with Google Analytics interesting. I haven't really used it for anything serious, more like "Cool, someone from Auckland stopped by the site."If I was running a large business site, I could see where the data could come in handy. For me, its mostly gee wiz stuff.Rush Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjwinslow Posted May 26, 2006 Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 So has anyone found anything interesting with Google Analytics? I just received my Google invitation today. It was meant for a project that I was working on back at the beginning of year so I'm not sure if I'm going to still use it for that or maybe something else. Just wondering if it was worth using on my genealogy site.I've been using Google Analytics for a couple of months now. I have found numerous interesting things about my site (mostly problems that I've been able to fix) and about how well the AdSense ads are working as well.First, there are no problems using Analytics on generated pages. I have both Analytics and Adsense on html, TNG and PHPBB pages. They all run fine with no problems.Second, the Analytics code needs to go in the footer of any page you want to track with the statistics they provide. If the Analytics code is not on a page then you will not be able to track activity on that page. I have it in the footer of all my pages. The reason for the footer placement is in case Google responds slowly to the java include, your page will still load. I really haven't seen any loading problems but I also don't have extremes of traffic either.If anyone is interested in how to get Analytics to track Adsense clicks, let me know and I'll track down the source links of where I got the information on how to set it up. I have been able to find out what pages generate the most clicks and what ads people are clicking on. This has caused me to remove ads from some pages that were performing poorly and position ads differently.Note: If you have an Analytics account you can also track how well your email newsletters perform. I used it on my last newsletter and found there were areas of my content that were of much more interest to my readers than others. I plan to focus a lot more content in these areas in my next newsletter.Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnold Posted May 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 I've been using Google Analytics for a couple of months now. I have found numerous interesting things about my site (mostly problems that I've been able to fix) and about how well the AdSense ads are working as well.I use Google Analytics and would like to know what kinds of problems it identified that you fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjwinslow Posted May 26, 2006 Report Share Posted May 26, 2006 I use Google Analytics and would like to know what kinds of problems it identified that you fixed.arnold,Like most problems, once you read what I found you'll say "Well that's only good web design, you should have been doing that all along." And you would be right. However, at the time most were done on purpose and I thought they would be a good idea.1. First an foremost was Page Bounces. A Page Bounce is when someone comes to your site, looks at one page and leaves. I currently run about 25% Page Bounces on my home page. I still don't consider it good but before I started tweaking with Analytics it was typically running 40% or more. When I added the graphic navigation buttons and most recently all the surnames on my site to the home page (this was an unexpected benefit, it was done for another reason, later) I was able to reduce the number of people hitting my home page and just leaving.2. Not to long ago I added a TNG FAQ and DNA FAQ pages to my site. The Exit Rates was horrible about 70% for these pages. The Exit Rate is the ratio of number of times a page is viewed to the number of times someone leaves your site from that page. I had included ways to get off the pages but I had not included the left hand navigation bar on these pages and it looks like when people could not go where they wanted they just left the site. 3. I have a very simple entry point for people to see the kind of results they can get from a TNG site. I have a link from my home page that show a pedigree chart. I noticed that many people would enter my site, click on the link, view the pedigree chart and leave the site. The TNG FAQ page was created because I was seeing a lot of people leave this page. Obviously they were interested in my site or they would have just left from the home page. My guess was that TNG can be a little over-powering to some people and they needed some help to be able to use the site.4. My forum pages have also always had higher Exit Rates than other types of pages. I have recently started adding links, referring readers to additional material relating to the forum topic. This seems to be working but additional work is needed here.There are more, especially having to do with Adsense. Oh, about the surnames on the home page. You may have read my post on loosing pages being indexed on Google. Recently, the number of pages I had listed with Google had dropped to was less than 150. I noticed that most of the ones remaining were the html pages and the first three levels of my forum. My goal was to get all of the individuals names and birth dates (about 10,000) indexed in Google so people could locate them by searching on the name. The site is set up to route the search bots to the getperson.php page but almost none of these were being indexed. I noticed that Google has a the tendency to list pages deeper in your navigation when it considers your site an authority, my site is new and I was only getting down to level three pages listed. I have now added all the surnames on my home page and linked them to a modified search.php page (I called find.php). The new find.php page displays names, birth dates and spouses for each surname. This places all this information on the second navigation level. I made this change on May 24. My pages listed in Google has gone from 150 to over 900 in two days. Of these 900 over 700 are the new "find.php" pages. If Google will keep displaying them, it looks like I will finally be able to get all the people in my database listed on Google.The added benefit is that my site has had a good position in the search results if Winslow is included in the search, but now my bounce rate is down because people are easily finding other surnames of interest on my site besides Winslow.Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smack Posted September 18, 2007 Report Share Posted September 18, 2007 I've been using Google Analytics for a couple of months now. I have found numerous interesting things about my site (mostly problems that I've been able to fix) and about how well the AdSense ads are working as well.First, there are no problems using Analytics on generated pages. I have both Analytics and Adsense on html, TNG and PHPBB pages. They all run fine with no problems.Second, the Analytics code needs to go in the footer of any page you want to track with the statistics they provide. If the Analytics code is not on a page then you will not be able to track activity on that page. I have it in the footer of all my pages. The reason for the footer placement is in case Google responds slowly to the java include, your page will still load. I really haven't seen any loading problems but I also don't have extremes of traffic either.If anyone is interested in how to get Analytics to track Adsense clicks, let me know and I'll track down the source links of where I got the information on how to set it up. I have been able to find out what pages generate the most clicks and what ads people are clicking on. This has caused me to remove ads from some pages that were performing poorly and position ads differently.Note: If you have an Analytics account you can also track how well your email newsletters perform. I used it on my last newsletter and found there were areas of my content that were of much more interest to my readers than others. I plan to focus a lot more content in these areas in my next newsletter.SteveHi Steve,I had a question about using Analytics and didn't see my question addressed in this subject. I just set up my site, started submitting the URL to the search engines, and signed up for Google Analytics. My question is about your second point above.Since I don't have html or php experience, what should the code look like in the footer? (I am using 6.1.1 and template 2. It's a vanilla set up, so am assuming I would just modify the "footer.html" file.)Thanks for your help.Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjwinslow Posted September 24, 2007 Report Share Posted September 24, 2007 Hi Steve,I had a question about using Analytics and didn't see my question addressed in this subject. I just set up my site, started submitting the URL to the search engines, and signed up for Google Analytics. My question is about your second point above.Since I don't have html or php experience, what should the code look like in the footer? (I am using 6.1.1 and template 2. It's a vanilla set up, so am assuming I would just modify the "footer.html" file.)Thanks for your help.GregGreg,Yes, you will add code provided by Google to your footer.html file. It is very simple to set up.Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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