XF 1.1 Google Analytics Tracking (Forums vs. Threads)

[CivilWarTalk]

I've been using XF with Analytics for quite some time now, and I discovered yesterday that, seemingly, analytics only tracks pageviews on my FORUM pages, and I found that quite odd....

It seems that pageviews to THREADS pages are not detected.

(Backstory: I always assumed I lost a lot of traffic from my conversion from VB4 to XF, but now looking back at my history, I believe the drop, which was dramatic, 60,000 visits per month pre-XF to 14,000 after conversion. However, I never saw a drop in daily forum activity. This drop may simply be from having a problem with my tracking code.)

Since I first started using XF, I put my tracking Property ID, in the Statistics & Metrics Options page in the admin panel. In addition, if I view source, I can see the tracking code on both Forums pages and Threads pages.

To troubleshoot, I removed my Property ID from the Stats & Metrics page, and I put a fresh copy of the tracking code in my page_container_js_head, and the problem seems to continue.... I have no idea why analytics can't track my Threads pages....

I'm currently running XF 1.1.4

Forum in question: http://CivilWarTalk.com

Any ideas?

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Here are some links to FORUM pages that seem to track properly:

http://civilwartalk.com/forum/
http://civilwartalk.com/forums/battle-of-gettysburg.96/
http://civilwartalk.com/forums/book-movie-review-tent.4/
http://civilwartalk.com/forums/researching-your-civil-war-ancestry.38/

Here are some links to THREADS pages that DO NOT track in Google Analytics:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/meade-of-gettysburg.85786/
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/lincoln-on-the-defensive.85804/
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/wilders-brigade-and-henry-rifles.85666/
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/gettysburg-from-longstreet-tower.85856/

 

[Mike]

I can see the ga.js file being loaded successfully by the browser. I'm not sure how much else can be done to debug on the XF/site end.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Yeah, I had a feeling, it's definitely weird. I'm watching the Real Time analytics screen, and something is very screwy, and I guess I need to contact Google on their support forum...

Also, looks like my addon of XenPorta for my homepage is not being tracked... My stats are really borked!

 

[LPH]

Just to chime in ... I started paying attention to real time analytics over the past two days. There appears to be an inconsistency between real time and what shows in the overview section the next day.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Just to chime in ... I started paying attention to real time analytics over the past two days. There appears to be an inconsistency between real time and what shows in the overview section the next day.

Good to know, that may be true.

However, when I go in Analytics to Content > Site Content > All Pages for the previous month, I see 1117 results, and every single URL is in the /forums/ subdirectory, nothing recorded from my /threads/.

I've posted at Digital Point and Google, I will update if I get any pertinent updates.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Add PAGES to my list of non-tracking pages, for instance:

http://civilwartalk.com/pages/Mort-Kunstler/

 

[CivilWarTalk]

I installed the chrome Google Analytics Tracking Code Debugger
https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/articles/gaTrackingTroubleshooting#debuggingTools

.... but i still can't find the problem...

 

[0xym0r0n]

I just use multiple analytics. Not sure if that's a bad thing but it seems every company I need something from has their own preferred analytics program.

I use awstats as well but that doesn't seem to filter out spam/bots, which is an issue for me.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Well, as an additional troubleshooting step I've dumped the asynchronous snippet and replaced it with the "traditional" version of the code, still no change to the reporting, same pages are still missing from the reports.... Now my website is just slower...

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Okay, looks like I figured it out! A filter was set in my analytics properties to only show results from my FORUM subdirectory!

Once I removed the filter, reporting resumed as normal.

I wonder if this filter was something that I setup back when I was using VB, and didn't remember to turn off...

And now back to my regularly scheduled webmastering....