Do we really require the hitCallback feature in Google Analytics for tracking onsite activities?

Question

Do we really require the hitCallback feature in Google Analytics for tracking onsite activities?

Currently, I am in the process of integrating Google Analytics into a website. Within this website, there is a page A that contains two links to page B on the same domain.

My goal is to use GA to track which navigation path the user took to go from page A to page B.

Based on my understanding of Google's developer guides, it seems that the tracking is most accurate when utilizing hitCallbacks.

Could someone confirm if this approach is correct, or if there are more effective solutions than implementing a JavaScript redirect after the GA event has been successfully sent?

javascript google-analytics

Answer 1

Answer №1

Having the GA tracking code on both pages eliminates the need for hitCallbacks. Instead, simply assign different events to each link from page A to page B.

From my own experience, hitCallback proves most valuable for tracking outbound links - particularly when a user clicks a link that takes them away from your site. In these cases, the new page may load before the GA script has had a chance to register the event. HitCallback solves this issue by ensuring the event is captured before the new page loads.

However, when a user navigates from one page to another within your own domain, GA will capture the event while the user is on Page B (if it wasn't captured on Page A). The event is placed in a queue by GA before transitioning from A to B. Once Page B is fully loaded, the GA script processes the queue and sends the event data to Google. This process is characteristic of GA's asynchronous nature, which was implemented in 2009. For a detailed explanation, check out this article from that time.

The reason hitCallback isn't effective for outbound links is that when a user's browser leaves your domain, the information stored in the browser's Javascript global variables is lost - including any events in the GA queue that haven't been sent to Google. For these scenarios, hitCallback can be utilized to ensure event data is transmitted before leaving your domain.

Answer 2

Having the GA tracking code on both pages eliminates the need for hitCallbacks. Instead, simply assign different events to each link from page A to page B.

From my own experience, hitCallback proves most valuable for tracking outbound links - particularly when a user clicks a link that takes them away from your site. In these cases, the new page may load before the GA script has had a chance to register the event. HitCallback solves this issue by ensuring the event is captured before the new page loads.

However, when a user navigates from one page to another within your own domain, GA will capture the event while the user is on Page B (if it wasn't captured on Page A). The event is placed in a queue by GA before transitioning from A to B. Once Page B is fully loaded, the GA script processes the queue and sends the event data to Google. This process is characteristic of GA's asynchronous nature, which was implemented in 2009. For a detailed explanation, check out this article from that time.

The reason hitCallback isn't effective for outbound links is that when a user's browser leaves your domain, the information stored in the browser's Javascript global variables is lost - including any events in the GA queue that haven't been sent to Google. For these scenarios, hitCallback can be utilized to ensure event data is transmitted before leaving your domain.

Answer 3

Answer №2

There is a feature called Link Attribution that may be what you are seeking.

According to the documentation:

By implementing enhanced link-tracking on your pages, you can:

View separate information for multiple links on a page that lead to the same destination. This means if there are multiple links on a page that all go to the Contact Us page, you will see individual click data for each link.

Identify when a single page element has multiple destinations. For example, a Search button that leads to various locations.

Track buttons, menus, and interactions triggered by javascript.

To activate this feature, you just need to insert one of the following lines based on the version you are using:

analytics.js/Universal Analytics:

ga('require', 'linkid', 'linkid.js');

ga.js/Legacy:

var pluginUrl =
 '//www.google-analytics.com/plugins/ga/inpage_linkid.js';
_gaq.push(['_require', 'inpage_linkid', pluginUrl]);

Answer 4

There is a feature called Link Attribution that may be what you are seeking.

According to the documentation:

By implementing enhanced link-tracking on your pages, you can:

View separate information for multiple links on a page that lead to the same destination. This means if there are multiple links on a page that all go to the Contact Us page, you will see individual click data for each link.

Identify when a single page element has multiple destinations. For example, a Search button that leads to various locations.

Track buttons, menus, and interactions triggered by javascript.

To activate this feature, you just need to insert one of the following lines based on the version you are using:

analytics.js/Universal Analytics:

ga('require', 'linkid', 'linkid.js');

ga.js/Legacy:

var pluginUrl =
 '//www.google-analytics.com/plugins/ga/inpage_linkid.js';
_gaq.push(['_require', 'inpage_linkid', pluginUrl]);

Do we really require the hitCallback feature in Google Analytics for tracking onsite activities?

Answer №1

Answer №2

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