Google analytics virtual page view vs regular page - google-analytics

I am sending a virtual page view(with a different name) in analytics on landing my default page if the user is not signed in.
The default page is itself getting logged in analytics as a regular page.
Is my virtual page affecting my regular page bounce rate?
If yes, how can I make it right?

There are two things to remember here. Firstly, Google Analytics cannot tell the difference between a virtual and a regular Page View. They are in fact the same thing, just triggered in different ways. They have the same impact on the Bounce Rate, and will appear in all reports in the same way.
Secondly, if you've triggered a virtual page view on a page, that won't automatically suppress the regular one. You could well be firing off a pair of page views (which really will kill your Bounce Rate).

Related

Google analytics two calls on pageview

I have implemented analytics with google tag manager on my website.
Can anybody explain,why there are two calls on Pageview?
First, one is for pageview, what this second call do?
Since the name of the page was visible (now edited out) in the image I had a look at it. There are two pageviews configured within GTM. On is configured to override the page path, that's why the two calls are different (and why you do not see duplicates in GA).
It looks like somebody tried to implement virtual pageviews (since this is a one page application without proper urls) and accidentally sends one pageview to many on the inital pageload.

Preventing an iframe on the same domain from triggering a page exit in Google Analytics

I am working on a third party website that contains a web application embedded in an iframe on the home page. This iframe is hosted on the same same sub/domain.
Currently page views are being tracked with _trackPageview. Due to a requirement by marketing both pages use the same Google account Id.
Since the iFrame was implemented the marketing department has noticed that the bounce rate has dropped to almost nothing. I suspect that this is because Google is interpreting the pageView event on the iframe as the visitor hitting another page on the website.
Just for additional information, the domain of the _gaq object is being set to "none" for both the container page and iframe.
Does Google provide a mechanism by which you can trigger PageView in such a way that it isn't interpreted as subsequent pageview in this scenario? (I know that trackEvent has a noninteraction property to deal with this?)
Am I better off just disabling the PageView for the default iframe page?
Does Google provide a mechanism - apparently yes, but probably not for your use case.
The field documentation for Universal Analytics describes the non-interaction field thusly:
Specifies that a hit be considered non-interactive.
So in UA this does no seem limited to events but to apply to all hits (which would include pageviews). I want to point out that I have no tested it and that it seems counterintutive, so it might simply be that the documentation is incomplete/wrong here.
However as you are using "classical" Analytics this does not apply to you. Since upgrading the code is a good idea in any case you might want to push for an update to Universal Analytics (this piqued my curiosity so I will test this over the next few days and update this answer with the results - maybe you want to wait until then, or simply test it yourself).
It's possible, but not 100% clear to me that disabling the PageView event on the iframe will prevent your users from registering a page exit (the pageview may get recorded regardless). You can try removing that event and see if it works.
But a better way may be to implement a custom filter on a new View excluding traffic to that specific class of iframes. Make sure you keep your old View (or create a new one with further filters) to make sure you're capturing those iframe views, if you think that's necessary.

How to use analytics screenviews in a website?

I'd like to track screenviews in my website, is this possible or are screenviews just meant to be used on apps? If so, how can I do it? Let me give you an overview of my situation.
I am restructuring a web site. Some of the pages that used to live under differents urls are now living under the same, with a hash id to denote the particular area of the page the user is in. So, for example, http://www.example.com/topics/topicA, http://www.example.com/problems/topicA and http://www.example.com/equations/topicA, are now in http://www.example.com/topics/topicA#content, http://www.example.com/topics/topicA#problems and http://www.example.com/topics/topicA#equations.
Now, I'd like to keep track of users visiting these areas. My initial idea was send a page view when the url is loaded and send a screenview each time the user clicks on the button to change the area of the page (i.e. #content, #problemas or #equations). For doing so, I used something like ga('send', 'screenview', {'screenName': 'content',});. As I couldn't see the screenviews in reports, I played a bit, setting the app name, the app id, the installer id etc before sending the screenview, for example:
ga('set', {
'appName': 'myAppName',
'appId': 'myAppId',
'appVersion': '1.0',
'appInstallerId': 'myInstallerId'
});
ga('send', 'screenview', {'screenName': 'content',});
So I can't see the screenviews in the real time reports (though I can see the page views). I can't see them in the regular reports either. I decided to create custom reports with dimensions Page and Screen name. There, I see sometimes screenviews are tracked (I think it happens when I set the appid etc before sending it, but not sure about this point).
Are screen views adecuate for tracking this behaviour or should I use just events, as I'm not on an app at all (just a responsive website)?
By the way, I am using Drupal 7 but that shouldn't make a difference.
Thanks in advance for your time and I hope I am making my question clear enhough.
Technically speaking its probably possible to send both pageviews and screenviews to the same Google Analytics web property.
The problem you will have is seeing the information. The way the Website is set up its either application or web account, Screenviews or pageviews. The reports are different, and you cant swap between them.
So you could send screenviews to a web site web property but you would never be able to analyse it on the website you would have to use the API to rip the data out. That and you would be analyzing apples and cars. Screenviews and pageviews are different they cant be analysed together.
Because of this web property's should be kept separate one for application (screenviews) one for web sites (pageviwes).
You should in my opinion do this using events.
+1 for an interesting question that made me think :)
Is possible, actually in BigQuery you can reach both data and see how this interact, both will have the same schema and will be stored in the same dataset(it is linked the raw data view). Even in the same sessions, you can send pageview and screen views having funny results.
But there is some important consideration when you implement this.
You need 2 different views, one Web View and One App View. Both views will let you access to different information and is not possible on the web interface of Google Analytics to access to both info at the same time. Not sure if with the API you can access to both info at the same time, I think that is totally possible
In the App View, you will able to see only information of screenview, events and ecommerce.Is also mandatory the App Name parameter on this hits.
In the Web View, you will able to see only the pageview reports,events and events.
The ecommerce info and events will be reachable from both views, there is no way to know if this comes from a web or an app ( technically). So is tricky to read this kind of reports in that case.
Sessions can experiment stranges behaviors. As example gosht sessions coming from the screen view with no page view, sending events.
Taking this into consideration, as Dalmto says, the best to you is use events or sent virtualpage view.
Mixing pageview and screen view is not recommended by Google but is totally possible.This kind of implementations is only useful when you have an embed web-app and a webpage on the same server and you want to have it all on the same dataset, if this case apply, is highly recommended to add a custom dimension to filter the app info on the web view and the web info on the app view and keep both worlds separated.
As the last point, your code is working, I can see the screen info on the desktop property. But not be able to see it in the web view.

How can I tell if a website is firing virtual page views?

Is there a way to know how many page views are being fired, including virtual pageviews, when a browser lands on a page?
I'm investigating a severe bounce rate drop that is pretty clearly a technical issue since there has been no content or layout changes on the site.
We do have:
2 Google Analytics tags (Classic and Universal) throughout the site;
Optimizley is set up and testing.
Could this cause the problem?
Note, there is currently no event tracking on the site, just the base analytics tags.
Is there a way to see what tags (assuming that's it) are causing the issue? I am using httpfox (like fiddler) and added filter "utm" to see what's going on. Sure enough, 2 GA tags firing plus 2 dart pixels.
Would those cause page views though?
To check what is firing on the entire page. Download firbug for firefox and add the "omnibug" extension. The omnibug extension should be in the firefox firebug window when you open it.
When you go the omnibug in the firefix panel, you will see EVERYTHING THAT IS FIRING!
Is that what you are looking for?
To check what pageviews are firing correctly VERY QUICKLY in Google analytics. Do the following;
Make sure the google analytics code you have is on the page you want to track
Make sure your IP is not excluded or filtered out of the analytics profile
Login to your google analytics account
Go to Real-Time section on the left hand sidebar.
Click on Content
Go to your site and click on the link or go to the virtual pageview page you added the code to and then watch if that link shows up in the real-time -> content section.

In Google Analytics, should I apply delay before redirection?

Using Google Analytics, I am tracking clicks on a link (The link is of the same website).
Is it necessary to apply some delay before redirection after tracking the click using trackPageViews?
I see people suggest delay on outbound link but I guess, the same rationale applies to the link that takes users to the same website.
The issue is really whether or not the tracking pixel request (from _trackPageview) has completed before you leave the current page.
So, yes -- if the link is opening up in the existing window, you'll want to add a delay on following the link, regardless of staying on the site or not.
BTW, while using _trackPageview for tracking clicks will work, it also inflates the actual page view count for your site -- you might want to use event tracking (with _trackEvent) instead. See Event Tracking Guide

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