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For a client who I just started working with I noticed in Google Analytics that the YouTube traffic is very very low. Somewhere in the few hundreds in the last month. YouTube shows up in the "social" aspect, but not in the "channel" part.
This is 100% false. Looking at the YouTube stats there were 13k + clicks on annotations, of which the vast majority link to the website.
I'm pretty sure that doesn't include clicks on the link in the description section.
Anybody have any idea what's going on? Is Google Analytics counting it as direct traffic?
I do have one theory which I think is probably the main issue. But I can't confirm for sure until I get access to their hosting backend and see the code for myself.
There's a lot of redirection going.
I.e the YouTube and social media traffic URL is going to
There is Google Analytics tracking code on the subdomain which is working fine. I think the redirect may be the issue at hand?
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009614?hl=en
"Note that you may not be able to successfully implement the tracking code on all redirect pages as some redirecting pages may not have any code. Additionally, some browsers may actually redirect before the JavaScript call from the code can be made."
This is pretty confusing technical stuff, but I want to figure it out. I don't have accces to the back end yet but I'll get it soon.
Basically their whole analytics situation is extremely weak. We're talking about a high profit margin business which sells digital products. They get a ton of traffic from Instagram but that's all showing up as direct traffic because they don't have a specific landing page/ or a special tracking url.
So top priority is to get the whole Analytics situation completely figured out, so we know what metrics there are. It boggles my mind that they're still not tracking digital product sales in Google Analytics.
I'm currently reading Web Analytics 2.0, which is a damn informative read, and a must read IMO. Hence the heavy focus in making sure every traffic source is attributed properly.
This is 100% false. Looking at the YouTube stats there were 13k + clicks on annotations, of which the vast majority link to the website.
I'm pretty sure that doesn't include clicks on the link in the description section.
Anybody have any idea what's going on? Is Google Analytics counting it as direct traffic?
I do have one theory which I think is probably the main issue. But I can't confirm for sure until I get access to their hosting backend and see the code for myself.
There's a lot of redirection going.
I.e the YouTube and social media traffic URL is going to
www.buywidgets.com/blue-widgets which is then redirected to www.subdomain.buywidgets.com/blue-widgetsThere is Google Analytics tracking code on the subdomain which is working fine. I think the redirect may be the issue at hand?
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009614?hl=en
"Note that you may not be able to successfully implement the tracking code on all redirect pages as some redirecting pages may not have any code. Additionally, some browsers may actually redirect before the JavaScript call from the code can be made."
This is pretty confusing technical stuff, but I want to figure it out. I don't have accces to the back end yet but I'll get it soon.
Basically their whole analytics situation is extremely weak. We're talking about a high profit margin business which sells digital products. They get a ton of traffic from Instagram but that's all showing up as direct traffic because they don't have a specific landing page/ or a special tracking url.
So top priority is to get the whole Analytics situation completely figured out, so we know what metrics there are. It boggles my mind that they're still not tracking digital product sales in Google Analytics.
I'm currently reading Web Analytics 2.0, which is a damn informative read, and a must read IMO. Hence the heavy focus in making sure every traffic source is attributed properly.
