Redirect pages and Google Analytics

Squiz Matrix Support
1

Hi,
When we create a standard page asset, it's web path is created from the asset tree hierachy. Eg www.site.com.au/parentfolder/newchildasset.

If I created a redirect such as www.site.com.au/newchildasset to shorten the url, would it mean we would lose hit stats of the newchildasset standard page?





This is what Google Analytics says about it…


[quote]How are redirects handled by Analytics?

If your site uses redirects, the redirecting page becomes the landing page's referrer. For example, if a user searches for a specific keyword, such as 'used books' on Google, there will not be any referring data showing that this keyword was searched on Google. Instead, the referral will be shown as the redirecting page.



For this reason, we recommend placing the Google Analytics tracking code on the redirecting page as well as on the landing page. This way, the redirecting page will capture the actual referrer information for your reports.



Please 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.[/quote]



So would it be sensible to limit the amount of redirects on a Matrix site, since the Redirect page can't imput code, just paths and urls?

Comments/confirmation appreciated.

Thanks!

2

We have some redirect pages on our homepage and struggle to track when people click on them.


No advice, just sympathy!

3

If you apply a paint layout to a redirect page, you can do two things:

  1. display a message letting the user know they are being redirected
  2. add a timeout (e.g., 5 secs) so your tracking code has enough time to record the page load



    Might be worth trying out if you are missing those clicks.