: Does cross domain tracking in Google Analytics require referral exclusions for subdomains? I have 3 websites. One that I host in Azure and two that are hosted by Hubspot. https://example-site.com

@Angela700

Posted in: #GoogleAnalytics

I have 3 websites. One that I host in Azure and two that are hosted by Hubspot.
example-site.com https://blog.example-site.com info.example-site.com

I have set up cross domain tracking using the Official Linker plugin.
My analytics for each of these domains looks like this.

main site
ga('create', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x', 'auto', { 'allowLinker': true });
ga('require', 'linker');
ga('linker:autoLink', ['https://blog.example-site.com/', 'http://info.example-site.com/']);
ga('send', 'pageview');

blog site
ga('create', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x', 'auto', { 'allowLinker': true });
ga('require', 'linker');
ga('linker:autoLink', ['https://example-site.com/', 'http://info.example-site.com/']);
ga('send', 'pageview');

info landing pages
ga('create', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x', 'auto', { 'allowLinker': true });
ga('require', 'linker');
ga('linker:autoLink', ['https://example-site.com/', 'http://blog.example-site.com/']);
ga('send', 'pageview');


From reading the linker plug in documentation, one of the lines says

Important: for cross-domain tracking to work properly, you must ensure all domains are included in the Referral Exclusion list as described in the cross-domain tracking guide.

And it links to The referral exclusions documentation

In here it states
When you initially set up your Analytics property, your domain is automatically added to the referral exclusion list. As a result, you shouldn't see self-referrals if you have a web property that tracks multiple subdomains.

So does this mean I have my analytics set up correctly? I'm logged into analytics and I'm on my main example-site.com property. But I see no way to add an additional URL to track. Currently these sites are all set up as different properties under a single account.

And if I do have them set up correctly, is there anything else I need to do to make sure that users who go from example-site.com to blog.example-site.com are counted as a single session and not as multiple sessions? I want to be able to see user flow because we have a lot of users who bounce back and forth between the main site and the blog and I want to make sure these users are counted as a single session.

Vote Up Vote Down

Login to post a comment!