Parameters and their tracking options in analytics
This article will help you understand different parameter types and how you can change the way Siteimprove Analytics tracks parameters used on your pages.
- What are parameters?
- Parameter rules
- Bulk tracking settings
- Parameters tracked by default
- Changing the Parameter settings
- Using parameters in campaigns
What are parameters?
URL Parameters (or Query Parameters) are parts of a page's URL after the "?". Some parameters are used to track which campaigns bring visitors to the website, others to specify what content should be displayed on the page, whilst others are used to specify sessions and similar specifics. A URL string can contain multiple parameters in which case each one is separated by the "&" character.
Campaign parameter
A URL with campaign parameters could look like this:
example.com/job?utm_campaign=july2018&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=banner
The specifics of the parameters give detailed information about how the visitor reached this particular page (as part of the July 2018 campaign, they clicked on a link in a Twitter banner).
These types of parameters are useful to track in regards to seeing the success rate of campaigns.
This example uses three parameters: utm_campaign, utm_source and utm_medium.
To find out more about monitoring campaigns using Siteimprove Analytics see "How do I monitor a Campaign using Siteimprove?"
Language parameter
A parameter can also be used to specify what is displayed on the page.
example.com/job?lang=en
This example uses the parameter "lang" to determine the language of the page displayed. In this case the page will be displayed in english.
Session parameter
A session parameter that does not change the content of the page may look like this:
example.com/job?sessionid=23565965 The specifics of the parameter registers the sessionid number but does not provide additional data in regards to where the user clicked the link or determines how the content should be displayed.
Parameter rules
The default behavior for pages with parameters is to count each unique parameter value as a unique page. You may change this behavior by setting up parameter rules for parameters that should not behave as unique page identifiers.
Administrators can inform Siteimprove about how to track the parameters by choosing one of 3 options:
As a campaign
Make the parameter count towards a standard UTM parameter. Eg. if you created a custom parameter called 'source_name' that you want to map to the UTM parameter UTM_source.
When we track a parameter "As a campaign" the Campaign parameters are removed from the URL but still visible under Analytics > Content > Parameters.
As one page with additional parameter details
Almost similar URLs where the only difference is the values of this parameter will be counted as one page, but parameter details will still be stored as specific details for the page.
We save the parameter information so that the user can see this breakdown under Analytics > Content > Parameters.
When tracking parameters in this way it is also possible to utilize the parameter values when creating filters and segmenting data.
As one page, ignore parameters
Siteimprove Analytics will ignore the parameter. Almost similar URLs where the only difference is the values of this parameter will be counted as one page.
If you have a URL called www.example.com?parametername=somevalue, then setting up the parameter of “parametername” and choosing “Ignore”, simply means that from now on all pages that resembles www.example.com?parametername=somevalue will be shown as www.example.com.
Example of using "As one page, ignore parameters" for sessionid parameter
In principle, Siteimprove Analytics counts every URL as a unique page, which is relevant in the cases where the parameter specifies what content should be displayed on the page.
However, in some cases, the parameter has no effect on the page content, and therefore it is not relevant to register all combinations of the URL, parameters, and values as unique pages.
For example; if there is a sessionid parameter, where every session is allocated its own value, this will result in large numbers of different URLs, even though in reality there is only one concrete page.
So in practice, every URL will be shown as a unique page in Analytics, where each one could have been visited just one time, instead of showing one URL with the total amount of visits.
| Page URL | Page Views |
|---|---|
| example.com/job?sessionid=659515618979 | 1 page view |
| example.com/job?sessionid=659515367833 | 1 page view |
| example.com/job?sessionid=659515355335 | 1 page view |
| example.com/job?sessionid=6f5951561244 | 1 page view |
| example.com/job?sessionid=65951f561222 | 1 page view |
Using the parameter rule "As one page, ignore parameters" to ignore the sessionid parameter would give this result.
| Page URL | Page Views |
|---|---|
| example.com/job | 5 page views |
Setting up parameter rules
You can configure how parameters are tracked under Parameters/Campaigns and Discover Parameters.
Parameters/Campaigns
Parameters/Campaigns is useful for setting up known parameters that you expect to appear in the analytics data.
- Go to Analytics > Analytics Settings > Tracking > Parameters/Campaigns.
- Select 'Add Parameter'.
- Enter the parameter name.
- Enter the parameter description (optional).
- Select how the parameter should be tracked from the following options:
- As a campaign
- As one page with additional parameter details
- As one page, ignore parameters
This method can be quite tedious if your website is using many different parameters, which is why there also is another way to start tracking parameters in Siteimprove: Discover Parameters.
Discover Parameters
Discover Parameters shows which parameters are already appearing on your website. This will help you identify various parameters that you perhaps did not know existed. You can set up rules quickly using the suggestion buttons under the "Recommendation" column. You can also use bulk actions or click on the "+" icon to the right of the table to choose tracking options.
Clicking the "+" will open the "Add Parameter" window.
- Go to Analytics > Analytics Settings > Tracking > Discover Parameters
- Click the "+" button for the parameter you want to set up rules for
- Enter the parameter description (optional).
- Select how the parameter should be tracked from the following options:
- As a campaign
- As one page with additional parameter details
- As one page, ignore parameters
Bulk tracking settings
When you navigate to discover parameters, you can select multiple parameters at the same time and create rules for all selected parameters. When you select multiple parameters you're presented with two options:
- Track parameters as one page with additional parameter details.
- Ignore parameters as one page, ignore parameters.
For further information on these options, see the description in Parameter rules earlier in this article.
Parameters tracked by default
The following table shows the default settings for common parameters found. If required, these settings can be changed under, Analytics > Analytics Settings > Tracking > Parameters/Campaigns.
| Parameter | Parameter type |
|---|---|
_ga | Ignore |
dclid | Track on page |
fbclid | Track on page |
gclid | Track on page |
msclkid | Ignore |
utm_campaign | Campaign (Name) |
utm_content | Campaign (Content) |
utm_medium | Campaign (Medium) |
utm_source | Campaign (Source) |
utm_term | Campaign (Term) |
Changing the Parameter settings.
If you change your mind about the configuration for a parameter. You can always go to Analytics > Analytics Settings > Tracking > Parameters/Campaigns. Here you can edit the parameter settings.
Using parameters in campaigns
Parameters can be used to monitor the success of marketing and social media campaigns. To find out more about monitoring campaigns using Siteimprove Analytics, see the following articles:
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