Does subdomain (or sub sub domain) affect analytics data of root site?
-
We self-host our public website, but over time have also added subdomains onto it that are not public and are for internal or even client portals. I am seeking advice as to whether those subdomains affect the analytics data (self referrals, visits, bounces) of the public site that I am tasked with analyzing. I feel that it does skew the data but need to build a solid case to move the public website to a new domain, so as to leave the existing one in tact with all of its subs.
-
Thanks for taking the time to respond. The guide on setting up tracking across multiple domains was helpful to learn how to filter referal traffic. Unfortunately in this case there is a combination of subdomains with tracking code and also others without, as they are intended to be internal. I am hoping to prove whether having so many is even in some small way negatively impacting the root domain. This article offered an interesting viewpoint: https://www.pi-datametrics.com/identify-seo-sub-domain-conflict-cannibalisation/
-
"Tracking IDs are the unique codes that you're given when you create a Google Analytics property, and look something like "UA-123456-1". Any page with that tracking ID, regardless of the site it's on, will send data to that property." Source
So basically, if you're using that same tracking ID across all subdomains then yes, it will be skewing your data. If you're unsure, the easiest way is to view the source of the page and search for UA- . You'll see a code something like the one quoted above; if it's the same on all subdomains then there's your problem
Your options are to either remove it from the subdomains you don't want to track or check out Eric's guide on how to how to set it up correctly.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
New Site Worries
To cut a long story short, our old web developers who built us a bespoke site decided that they could no longer offer us support so we decided to move our back end to the latest Magento 2 software and move over to https with a new company. The new setup has been live for 3 weeks, I have checked in webmaster tools and it says we have 4 pages indexed, if I type in site:https://www.mydomain.com/ we have 6560 pages indexed, our robots.txt file looks like this:Sitemap: https://www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml Sitemap: https://www.mydomain.com/sitemaps/sitemap_default.xml I use Website Auditor and Screaming Frog, Website Auditor returns a 302 for my domain and Screaming Frog returns a 403 which means I cannot scan any of these. If I check my domain using an https checking tool some sites return an error but some return a 200.
Reporting & Analytics | | Palmbourne
I have spoken to my new developer and he says everything is fine, in Webmaster tools I can see some redirects from his domain to mine when the site was in testing mode. I am concerned that something is not right as I always check my pages on a regular basis. Can anyone shed any light on this, is it right or am I right to be concerned. Thank you in advance0 -
Subdomain tracking codes on subdomain and not root
Afternoon all. I’m pretty sure this is going to be fine but I thought I would seek some confirmation before I action anything. We have a blog subdomain on our site, I have just noticed that the entire blog (built in Wordpress) has no analytics tracking code on it. As this is built in Wordpress I have just logged in on an admin account I think people forgot I had and added the code to the header section as it is a two second job. My question is this – On the main account, subdomain tracking has not been turned on, so the root domain has not got the additional _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'rootdomain.co.uk']); line of code in it. I have included this on the blog.rootdomain.co.uk code as is necessary to enable tracking. Will this work or cause tracking issues? I think it should be ok. I don’t want to have to update the root domain code if I can avoid it as that will need to go through the development team and may take weeks as they are swamped and under resourced. Thanks, Rich.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sarbs0 -
Mobile Site on Google Analytics
Hi mozzers, We just launched a mobile site and I was wondering what are the main steps to follow for gettting your mobile site tracked via GA (m.example.com)? We have a profile for www.example.com GATC: javascript or PHP to install? Should the profile be on a subdomain? What else to consider when implementing a mobile site on GA? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Will PPC affect Organic?
Is anyone familiar with a relation between Google PPC and Organic? We started a PPC campaign recently and our organic results spiked up at the same time for phrases that we are bidding on.
Reporting & Analytics | | klmarketing0 -
How to change a url for google analytics account
We recently changed the url of a client's website. Is there a way to change the url on the ga account instead of creating a new account so that we don't lose comparative data? Thanks! Sorry- I know this is a novice question.
Reporting & Analytics | | marketing12340 -
Analytics URL Tagging
For some reason I can't get Google Analytics to pick up my URL tags, am I doing something wrong? http://www.example.com/?utm_source=carscom&utm_campaign=3rdparty&utm_medium=referral
Reporting & Analytics | | kylesuss0 -
Site speed not being reported accurately?
We're constantly on the lookout for site speed, and Google's Webmaster tools are saying that we're really really slow (on the order of 5-15 seconds per page). But the site NEVER feels that slow, and lots of other tools say we're in the 3-5 second range. Further, we've implemented literally 100% of Google's suggestions, and all we have are ad units that now render using Googles Async ad loader, further reducing time to interactivity. Could Google be dinging us in search results for this? Here's an example page that they said loaded in 200+ seconds (!?!) http://hark.com/clips/kwkdqqtzsg-terran-nuclear-launch-detected Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | TheIronYuppie0 -
Best Practices For Google Analytics
Does anyone have any recommendations or resources for best practices in using Google Analytics. Specifically, as they relate to SEO and managing and monitoring several websites (i.e. registering/managing multiple accounts vs. master account, etc).
Reporting & Analytics | | Gyi0