One Analytics Code for multiple sites

[samit]

Hello,

Recently I am working on a client's site. Some on page work was already done and the Google Analytics code already installed.

But suddenly I discovered that the client is using an analytics code that is present in 3 other sites. Means 4 of the client's sites are using same code.

I am surprized after I noticed that. Generally I know through one analytics ID we can handle multiple web sites in it, but each and every site should be separately added and should have separate accounts. never heard that one analytics code can be used in more than one site.

So what I know, is wrong. Isn't it?

[makemetop]

It is up to what the user is trying to do really.

There is no technical reason to not have the same code on multiple sites, often, specifically if all sites belong to one company.

Of course, some people do it by mistake and wonder why their analytics does not work properly.

[Adamus]

It does pollute your Google Analytics, as standard reports will show aggregate data instead of data per site. This can severely hinder you in analysing each site's performance and gain insights in to what you need to improve.

You can work around this without putting new tracking codes on each site by creating a separate profile in Google Analytics for each site, and apply a filter to each to only count traffic to a specific domain name.

For example if you have site1.com, site2.com, etc, all using the same tracking code, you set up a different profile in GA for each site. Then for the profile for site1.com, you build a filter:

Filter type: Custom filter > Include
Filter field: Hostname
Filter pattern: (^site1\.com|\.site1\.com)

And then you do the same for site2.com, site3.com, etc. Each profile will then only show the data for traffic to that particular domain.

[Receptional]

I've also seen my analytics code (yahoo, not Google) scraped along with my content and found the scraper site in my logs!

Now that's one dim scraper programmer :)

[Alexei]

Adamus,

Great point. But I think when creating a filter for a new profile we can go with "Predefined filter" rather than "Custom filter".

Say, I want to filter out a local site, site1.de. Here are parameters for the "Predefined filter" [pic.im...]

Include > traffic from the domains > that are equal to > site1.de

[Adamus]

Alexei, I'm not sure that predefined filter will work. I believe that filter refers to traffic source, not the on-site traffic. With that predefined filter you can exclude or include visitors from specific domains & IP addresses, so you can filter out visitors from your own company network for example.

[Alexei]

Adamus, it make sense.

Can you post a screenshot of the filter you built? I.e.

Filter type: Custom filter > Include
Filter field: Hostname
Filter pattern: (^site1\.com|\.site1\.com)

I'm not sure how to do it from your example.

Thanks!

[Adamus]

Alexei, sure, we had to build a filter like this for one of the biggest sites I manage as the GA code was used across two domain names. See the screenshot for the filter: [visualscript.co.uk ]

And this is the text in the Filter Pattern field:
^belfasttelegraph\.co\.uk|\.belfasttelegraph\.co\.uk

Hope this helps.

[Alexei]

Many thanks, Adamus.

I've built the filter - waiting for the first data to come.

[Alexei]

Adamus, the filter worked for me. Thanks and cudos!