google analytics cookies

Crunching Cookies without Dropping Crumbs

By Nikki Rae @analyticsgirl

Nikki Rae

• Managing Director Future Insight Analytics Ltd.

• Google Analytics Specialist• First #brightonseo – 19th Feb 2010!!• @analyticsgirl

Todays Session

• What is a Cookie?• How can you tell if they are working properly?• What happens if they aren't working? • What is their role in cross domain tracking?

Why Do I Need to Know this?

–Many SEOs only view the Keyword report to look at• Visits to Keywords• Bounce Rate to Keywords

–How can I track keywords across sites?–How can I make sure my tracking is

working?

What is a Cookie?

• Cookies are used to help Google Analytics ‘remember’ what a user has done and how they have interacted with a website.

Ga.js Cookie Usage

• Which domain is being used?– Sub Domains?–Multiple Domains?

• Who is using the site?• How many times have they visited the site?• How did they get to the site?• When did a visit start/end?• Maintain visitor level custom variable information

Google Analytics Cookies

• 5 Main Cookies– _utma– _utmb– _utmc– _utmz– _utmv

Visitor Cookie

__utma Expires 2 years from set/update

Unique Site Visitor

1. If Cookie does not exist

a. Must be first visit

b. Cookie is set2. If cookie exists

a. Must be return visit

b. Cookie is updated every time data is sent to GA

Session Cookies

__utmb Expires 30 mins from set/update

Sessions/ Visits

1. If Cookie does not exist

a. Must be a new session/visit

b. Cookie is set2. If cookie exists

a. Must be current visit

b. Cookie is updated every time data is sent to GA

Session Cookies

_utmc Expires End of Browser Session

Not used in ga.js.

Campaign Cookie__utmz Expires 6

months from set/update

Traffic Source

1. Source2. Medium3. Campaign

Name4. Campaign

Term

Cookie is updated every time data is sent to GA

Custom Variable Cookie

__utmv 2 years from set/update

Visitor Level Custom Variable

1. Need to use _setCustomVar method

Cookie is updated every time data is sent to GA

Cookies Failing?

• Pages not tracked• Traffic Sources/Mediums etc. incorrectly

recorded e.g. PPC traffic showing as organic• Cookies are device and browser based– One unique visitor per browser per device– Can misrepresent reality

Testing Tracking• Download -

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-debugger/jnkmfdileelhofjcijamephohjechhna

Switch Debugger ON

• Switch it ON

Find Advanced Settings

• Click ‘Show Advanced Settings’

Click ‘Clear Browsing Data’

• Click ‘Clear Browsing Data’

Delete Cookies

• Delete Cookies from ‘beginning of time’

Go to your Site• Go to your site via any medium• Select CTRL-SHIFT-J• This is the information that would be sent to Google Analytics

For Example…

• If you entered your site via a PPC Ad, and the following data appeared, you’d know it was not correctly tracked

• Most likely, not using auto-tagging or GA Manual Tagging

Gif Request Parameters

GA Debug.js

Viewing Cookies

• Back to ‘Advanced Settings’

Content Settings

• Then click ‘Content Settings’

All Cookies an Site Data

• Click ‘All Cookies and Site Data’

Google Analytics Cookies

Identifying Unique Visitors_utma 209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

1. Domain hash, unique for each domain

209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

2. Unique Identifier

209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

3. Timestamp for first time you visited the site

209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

4. Timestamp for previous visit

209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

5. Timestamp for start of current visit

209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

6. Number of sessions

209459845.1349019670.1365484756.1365484756.1365484756.1

First Session

In last example, the Timestamp for• 1st visit (1365484756)• Previous Visit (1365484756)• Current Visit (1365484756)

Are all the same as this is the first and only visit (number of sessions=1)

The combination of Unique ID and timestamp of first visit form a unique identifier that Google Analytics uses to identify different visitors.

Session Identifiers_utmb 209459845.5.10.1365484756_utmc 209459845

1. Domain hash, unique for each domain209459845.5.10.1365484756

2. Number of Pageviews in current session209459845.5.10.1365484756

3. The 10 in the UTMB cookie starts at 10 on every site. And each time you click on an outgoing link it will count down until it reaches 0. It’s part of some outgoing links tracking system in the ga.js that never appeared in the GA interface (Andre Scholten)209459845.5.10.1365484756

4. Timestamp for current session209459845.5.10.1365484756

Campaign Identifiers

Campaign Identifiers_utmz 209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

1. Domain hash, unique for each domain209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

2. Timestamp when cookie was set209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

3. Session Number209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

4. Campaign Number – Number of different campaigns used to enter site209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

5. Campaign Source209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

6. Campaign Name209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

7. Campaign Medium209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

8. Campaign Terms209459845.1365484756.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)

Customisation

• _setDomainName – Sets the domain to which all cookies will be set.

• _setVisitorCookieTimeout – Sets the Google Analytics visitor cookie expiration in milliseconds.

• _setSessionCookieTimeout – Sets the new session cookie timeout in milliseconds.

• _setCampaignCookieTimeout – Sets the campaign tracking cookie expiration time in milliseconds.

First Party Cookies

• Can only be used by the website that sets the Cookies

• Can be overridden for sub domain and cross domain tracking

Cross Domain Tracking

• www.toystore.com sets the GA Cookies• They want to be used by blog.toystore.com• They want to be used by www.bookstore.com

www.toystore.comlinker

www.bookstore.comblog.toystore.com

Cross Domain Tracking

• Force GA into seeing blog.toystore.com and www.bookstore.com as the same site as www.toystore.com to share cookies

www.toystore.comlinker

www.bookstore.comblog.toystore.com

Sub Domain Tracking

• Out of the box, GA sees the below as two separate domains• Use _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'toystore.com']);

www.toystore.com blog.toystore.com

Cross Domain Tracking

• Use _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', ‘toystore.com']);_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);

www.toystore.com

linker

www.bookstore.com

• Use Linker Method e.g. <a href="http://www.bookstore.com" onclick="_gaq.push(['_link',

'http://www.bookstore.com']); return false;">Book Store</a>

Hostname Filter

• Filter Type: Custom filter > Advanced• Field A: Hostname Extract A : (.*)• Field B: Request URI• Extract: (.*)• Output To: Request URI• Constructor: $A1$B1

Goal Reports etc.

• Be Careful!– Goals will also need hostname in as well as

pagename e.g. www.bookstore.com/index.php rather than just index.php

Summary

• Cookies help to– Differentiate one user from another– Determine a relationship between sequential

pages– Can only be used by the website that sets them

unless you configure your tracking code– Do not collect any personal information– Can misrepresent real life (unique visitors,

deletion, unacceptance)

The End

References

• http://devblog.springest.com/anatomy-of-google-analytics-cookies

• http://andrescholten.net/• https://developers.google.com/analytics/devg

uides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage• https://

developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSite

• http://bit.ly/GATrouble

Visits/Sessions Ending?

More than 30 minutes have elapsed between pageviews for a single visitor.

At the end of a day.

When any traffic source value for the user changes. Traffic source information includes:utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, utm_id, utm_campaign, and gclid.As before, if any of these events occur, then the next pageview from the user will be the start of a new session.