How to identify the traffic source in Google analytics in a third party e-commerce site used in conjunction with drupal?

Question

I have a Google Analytics Module installed in a Drupal site. This tracks any traffic source that is organic (coming in from google search). However we are using a third-party e-commerce platform for processing booking information. This tracks the transactions but doesn't track the traffic source - if the original site has organic or paid traffic source, the third party site just thinks that the traffic is a referral from the original site.

Here's the GA code in the original site - callawaygardens.com

var _gaq = _gaq || [];_
gaq.push(["_setAccount", "UA-1162555-1"]);_
gaq.push(["_setDomainName", "none"]);
_gaq.push(["_setAllowLinker", true]);
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'callawaygardens.com']);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
_gaq.push(["_trackPageview"]);

(function() {var ga = document.createElement("script");ga.type = "text/javascript";ga.async = true;
ga.src = ("https:" == document.location.protocol ? "https://ssl" : "http://www") + ".google-analytics.com/ga.js";var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);})();

Here's the code in the third party booking site: var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1162555-1']); _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.synxis.com']); _gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview', 'Confirmation']); _gaq.push(['_addTrans', '18174SB007366', // order ID - required 'Callaway Gardens Resort', // affiliation or store name '119.00', // total - required '15.47', // tax '', // shipping 'New York', // city 'NY', // state or province 'US' // country ]);

   // add item might be called for every item in the shopping cart
   // where your ecommerce engine loops through each item in the cart and
   // prints out _addItem for each
  _gaq.push(['_addItem',
    '18174SB007366',                     // order ID - required
    'IMND - BA12',      // SKU/code - required
    'Mountain Creek Inn Double ',                      // product name
    'Best Available Rate',                      // category or variation
    '119.00',                     // unit price - required
    '1'                  // quantity - required
  ]);
  _gaq.push(['_trackTrans']);


  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

Eike Pierstorff Eike Pierstorff · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-05T08:46:32

Since you didn't mention them you might have forgotten to use the _link or _linkByPost functions. Merely to allow linking in the GA code is not enough, you have to explicitly send the cookie data to the other domain.

Documentation is here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/methods/gaJSApiDomainDirectory#_gat.GA_Tracker_._linkByPost

Updated to add:

As for the Drupal module - I haven't used Drupal in quite some time, so I'm not sure. But from looking at the code it looks like the _link method (which works with links to the other domain) is attached automatically while the _linkByPost-Data (which works with forms) is not implemented at all. So if you send your visitor to the other domain via a form this wouldn't work.

Other thoughts: maybe there is a redirect between your site and the other domain ? In this case you'd have to make sure that the redirect does not lose the data that's added via the linker methods.

How to identify the traffic source in Google analytics in a third party e-commerce site used in conjunction with drupal?

1 Answers