If you have ever used Google Analytics, you will notice that it tracks how users behave on your site – from which pages they click, which products they purchase, which terms they search, to which browsers they use. It is all done by way of setting/getting different cookies on your customer’s computers, and using those to track them.
Here are some frequently used scenarios and how Google Analytics deals with them.
How is a user session determined?
A visitor session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity on your website, or when the browser exits. Google Analytics is able to determine the start of a new session by the absence of either session cookie. Cookie : __utmb, __utmc
How is a unique visitor identified by use of cookies?
Each unique browser that visits a page on your site is provided with a unique ID via the __utma cookie. In this way, subsequent visits to your website via the same browser are recorded as belonging to the same (unique) visitor. Cookie : ___utma
How are traffic and referral sources tracked?
When visitors reach your site via a search engine result, a direct link, or an ad that links to your page, Google Analytics stores the type of referral information in a cookie. Cookie : __utmz
How can you track custom information using cookies supplied by Google Analytics?
You can define your own segments for reporting on your particular data. When you use the _setVar() method in your tracking code to define a custom user segment, Google Analytics uses this cookie to track and report on that information. Cookie : __utmv
How can perform A/B tests using cookies?
You can use Google Analytics with Google Website Optimizer (GWO), which is a tool that helps determine the most effective design for your site. Cookie : __utmx
Guide to Google Analytics Cookies:
Cookie Function | Cookie Name | Expirtion |
---|---|---|
User Session | __utmb __utmc |
30 minutes from set/update |
Identifying Unique Visitors | __utma | 2 years from set/update |
Tracking Traffic Sources & Navigation | __utmz | 6 months from set/update |
Custom Tracking | __utmv | 2 years from set/update |
Website Optimizer | __utmx | 2 years from set/update |
Next week I will be going over how you can set custom variables on your site to track certain events/behaviors that are happening on your website back to Google Analytics.
Great informative post, waiting for the next post on tracking events, good work Jake 🙂
Hello Jake – I just stumbled on your site on my Friday morning reading round. Nice articles re: GA, WSO…
As you are obvious a GA enthusiast I thought you might be interested in this post from me this morning: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/2010/02/…
Brian Clifton
Author