Google Analytics seems to be affected after setting preferred domain

Question

I hope you can assist me with this! I've recently changed the preferred domain for my site https://example.com. Unfortunately, after doing so, it appears that views/visits are no longer being recorded by Google Analytics. I've edited the URL in GA's Admin settings to indicate that it is now https://example.com - perhaps it just needs some time to settle in?

Also, I'm not quite sure if I've set up the 301 redirect correctly after setting my preferred domain.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

If I have an HTTPS site, do I need to add the 's' to the sections that contain 'HTTP'?

Answer 1

Yes, you do need to add the 's'.

Specifically to this line: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

You can't redirect all visitors to HTTPS when you explicitly redirect them to HTTP!

At a minimum, you need RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I suggest you look over lines 262 to 413 of this file https://github.com/h5bp/server-configs-apache/blob/master/dist/.htaccess

Answer 2

That should not happen. When you use a redirect like that it doesn't trigger any JavaScript, not any site load. Hence your analytics shouldn't recognize any action and stop recording stats.