Referral exclusion not working with GTM?
-
Hi, how are you?
I have my website with Google Tag Manager implemented. Google Analytics is one of the tags I have configured.The problem is that Referral exclusions aren't working for me. I excluded 3 domains, and I keep seeing them in my Referral Traffic report.
Any idea why this could be happening?Best wishes,
Ariel -
So good to hear!
-
Fixed it.
Seems that the IT guys left some old ga.js tracking codes that were activated in some transactions. When you have mixed tracking codes between analytics.js and ga.js this kind of pathological behaviors happen.
Thanks!
-
Not yet. Still trying different possible causes. Hopefully I'll have some results in the next few days.
-
Did this ever get resolved?
-
Nope, still trying to contact Google to fix this issue.
-
Did you figure this out?
-
Yeah, I've seen that article. The problem is that I don't have acceso to the other domain, and that what I did is exactly what it says in the last step, that's why I'm really lost!
I just contacted some people in Google to see if they can check what's going on.
-
I don't see anything wrong there ... I wonder if something like this would help you? I've never done it myself, but this article might be worth checking out: http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2013/12/24/cross-domain-tracking-tag-manager/#sr=g&m=o&cp=or&ct=-tmc&st=(opu qspwjefe)&ts=1420936709
-
There's no way a user can come from those subdomains without passing from my site first. The path you give as an example is accurate.
Analytics is being tracked threw a tag in Google Tag Manager. You can see the configuration of the tag in http://imgur.com/Pqi3Gt5. Can you find anything wrong?
-
Ah, that makes more sense. Is there any way that traffic could be coming from those domains without having gone to your site first? Can you give me an instance of a path a user might take?
Example: User goes to product page on shop.domain.com, checks out, is referred to na.otherdomain.com, and comes back to shop.domain.com.
I am trying to see if there is another issue in the path of the user.
Also, can you share the tag you are using on your site for GA?
-
Yes, but those subdomains aren't from my website, they are from the website of payment gateway from where my visits return to my website after paying.
-
In your attachments, the screen grabs referenced two subdomains, one starting with eu and one with na.
-
I'm sorry, what subdomains are you talking about?
-
Are these subdomains on the same tracking code as the root domain?
I can't find a live instance of pages on these subdomains, can you give us examples of the tracking code on one page of each subdomain and the main domain (the one being tracked)?
-
Any ideas why this isn't working?
-
Yes, that's what I did, please check the tho images I attached, one of them (http://imgur.com/IrzKXiY) is a screenshot of the Referral Exclusion in the admin section.
-
With the new version of Google Analytics and GTM, you no longer code referral exclusions into the ga.js, instead you should be excluding them in the admin section.
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/upgrade/reference/gtm
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Need advice on setting up primary domain and shopify site analytics to work best together
Hello, I have a client that I have been working on their primary site for the last year or so. In the last month they decided to have one of their internal employees setup a small shopify store. Now they are asking for the analytics tracking codes for it. My question for you is what would be the best way for me to set that up? variables: primary domain and shopify domain, google and bing analytics Have been looking at how cross domain tracking works (https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6106951), and the instructions for setting up ecommerce in analytics for shopify (https://help.shopify.com/manual/reports-and-analytics/google-analytics/google-analytics-setup). But am still not 100% which route would be the best, any input would be greatly appreciated! thank you, Dustin
Reporting & Analytics | | pastedtoast1 -
Filters for referral bots ineffective
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here. I've been trying to block spam from my client's analytics for over a month and I just can't seem to get it right. I am beyond frustrated. Here is a list of the filters I have: http://imgur.com/a/SVvEA#0 And here is referral traffic from them regardless: http://imgur.com/a/SVvEA#1 Specifically this is what the filter looks like. Am I doing something wrong here? http://imgur.com/a/SVvEA#2 I have also put a filter in place to block traffic from Russia, and it doesn't seem to be working 100% either. http://imgur.com/a/SVvEA#3 On top of that, it seems anytime I do manage to block something, another site just pops up in its place. Is it endless? My clients are very small local business and this is absolutely ruining their analytics. I can't even show them their traffic reports since it's absolutely meaningless with all this spam. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | everestagency0 -
Google Ad referral
I was wondering if someone could decode the jumble of a referral - this is supposedly the referal that led to a click through to my site via a product listing ad. I am trying to figure out how www.nextag.com comes in to the picture as we do not have refurbexperts even listed there? Thanks to anyone who tries/does work it out. http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=CGXud6DmDU_qeL5THygHpuICwCaTZwMYD_Nvvv0bEwMS50wEIBhAEIOn5-gEoBVCl7P7f-v____8BYMnu8omYpPQSoAHAhIv9A8gBB8gDG6oEJ0_QwcNc5zNun_d7S5KNcMT6uPjjH_mMDkKFFgBCQ6aKICRPJVVa7MAFBYgGAaAGJoAHqPv0ApAHAeASupqdo-ypit0m&ohost=www.google.com&cid=5GhZEzUCSC6x9n2wxOdz3-mrAfSUkvHKPN3wD5yLInnlNil_&sig=AOD64_1D1z1JPYbFP0UnUglJVOfvd25RfA&adurl=http://refurbexperts.com/product/527/HP-LaserJet-P2015-Laser-Printer-RECONDITIONED%3Futm_source%3Dproductlistingads%26utm_medium%3Dadwords%26utm_campaign%3Dadwords&ctype=5&nb=0&res_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextag.com%2Fhp-p2015-laserjet%2Fproducts-html%3Fnxtg%3D116d0a1c0504-9FFEB16DE52A7E2A&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextag.com%2Fgoto.jsp%3Fp%3D3652%26search%3Dhp%2520p2015%2520laserjet%26t%3Dag%253D1384181795%26crid%3D48271786%26gg_aid%3D20169721025%26gg_site%3D%26gclid%3DCjgKEAjwzIucBRDzjIz9qMOB3TASJABBIwL1LHK7GcAPS6yHGpd9Kq3wsZrcPORAWD8QCWivr4W75PD_BwE&nm=11&nx=43&ny=12&is=700x181&clkt=187
Reporting & Analytics | | henya0 -
Locating Source of Referral Traffic
Hey Folks, I have discovered a Korean site is sending considerable traffic to a specific landing page on my client's cosmetic surgery site in California. I am concerned Google may deem this as spammy - I know I do. I have been able to track the referral traffic to this point: cluster1.cafe.daum.net/c21/bbs_read which appears to be a community-based site and/or forum. However, I can not locate the exact source where the href back to my client's site resides. Given that my Korean is not exactly up to par 😉 and Google translate only takes me so far, can any of you suggest an advanced query or method of tracking to pinpoint the source page? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | SCW0 -
Testing IP Exclusion Filters in Google Analytics
(I hope I haven't missed something simple 😉 I have add IP exclusion filters in Google Analytics. What I haven't been able to determine is how to test to see if it is working. I'd imagine there would be a dip in traffic but if a site is low volume it might not even register. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | AUDigitalMarketing0 -
What is click2.scour, and why is it showing up as Referral Traffic in Google Analytics?
I've noticed that a couple of my clients in the insurance industry have been receiving a pretty large boost in Referral Traffic from a source called click2.scour.com and click2.efacts.com. What surprises me most is that the traffic has a low Bounce Rate, a high Avg. Visit Duration, and is made up of 100% New Visits. What is this? Why would they be getting so much traffic from these two sources all of a sudden? Thanks in advance for your help!
Reporting & Analytics | | copyjack0 -
Traffic Down for Most Referrers - not just Google
Our traffic has taken a severe hit, over the past 3 weeks - down about 60%, which I had assumed was caused by the Penguin update. However on closer inspection of our analytics, our traffic is is down by between 30 and 50% for nearly all our referrers - including Bing and other search engines, referring sites, and even direct traffic! Google provides the vast majority of our traffic, so in terms of the absolute visitor count, the drop in Google traffic has the biggest effect - by some distance. But the fact that traffic is down by similar percentages suggest that Penguin isn't the cause of our troubles at all. We sell garden products in the UK, and it's just coming into peak season. Last year, May was one of our top months, External conditions - such as the very wet weather over the past month, economic gloom and doom - don't begin to explain this sudden and dramatic drop in traffic. We are very perplexed. If anyone has any bright ideas, I'd be interested to hear them. Ben
Reporting & Analytics | | atticus70 -
Dramatic Increase in referrals from own website
The past few weeks I've been wracking my brain to figure out why on earth my branded searches could be dropping off at 30-40%. Well today, I realize I've had a dramatic increase in referrals from my own site (the non www verison). I'm talking 150 in March of last year to 5k in March of this year drastic. My 301 redirects haven't changed as far as I know -- I've had them set to redirect from the non www. to the www. for at least a year or two. I'm assuming visitors from search engines are somehow getting the non www version and the redirect is attributing the traffic to referrals instead of search. The drop in search traffic and the increase in referral traffic fall on the same day. Does that sound right/possible? If so, how do I fix this? My traffic stats for two clients are all screwy because of this. I want to make sure whatever solution I implement won't hurt my search traffic numbers any more 🙂 Has anyone else seen this happen recently? I could imagine an anomaly with one site but I find it odd that it could be two client sites. I still have some others to check. Thanks in advance! Leslie
Reporting & Analytics | | LeslieVS0