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We have two websites 1: (www.a-example.com) = old site 2: (www.b-example.com) = new site

We manage an old site and tracking performance through GA. The new site has created by some other agency and they will deployed adobe analytics tracking code and will take care of everything.

The client wants to know how many people have redirected from the old site (www.a-example.com) to the new site (www.b-example.com)

We’ve been asked to keep the old website live for at least 2-3 months. With that said, the client is wondering if it’s possible to track the # of users still visiting from the old website link?

I am wondering if there is a way to track the redirects traffic in Google Analytics that helps to show that users are still visiting from the old website link.

FYI, none of the links have UTM tagging. Another thing to note, we do not have access to their Adobe Analytics.

Does anyone think that "Referral Path" in Google Analytics can help with this? I am looking for the ideas whether we can even track the above request or not, Any help will be highly appreciated

Thanks in advance! Anil

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  • Do you want to track from the google analytics of the old domain?
    – Kannan
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 3:42
  • Yes this is correct. I want to track the redirects from the Google Analytics of the old domain.
    – Anil
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 6:39
  • What is your implementation mechanism? Have you implemented a site-wide 301 redirect using htaccess or something?
    – Kannan
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 6:54
  • I am not 100% sure as their is a disconnection between our company and the company who develop the new site. I assume they have implemented 301 redirect, not sure about htaccess.
    – Anil
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 11:39
  • I didn't ask about the new site. If I understood correctly, there is a global redirect from old site URLs to new site URLs. Hence, the redirect should be present on the old site that you manage (based on your question). I am asking about the redirect mechanism implemented on the old site. Please correct me if I am missing something.
    – Kannan
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 11:55

1 Answer 1

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The requirement is to track redirects to the new domain from the old one using the GA of the old website.

Here is an outline of a possible solution.

Important: The redirect has to be done using a handler script on the server-side of the old domain. The primary function of the script will be redirecting a request to the old domain to the corresponding URL in the new domain (like olddomain/pageXYZ to newdomain/pageXYZ and so on). The handler script will do the following.

Step 1:

Create and fire a google analytics event using Measurement Protocol. https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/devguide

In short, you have to create a POST request to google analytics servers with the required data. The payload data parameters for event tracking are summarized here https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/devguide#event

In case you use PHP on the old domain, you can explore https://github.com/theiconic/php-ga-measurement-protocol

Step 2:

Do a server-side redirect to the appropriate page of the new domain after firing the GA event.

For example, in case you use PHP, you have to issue something like header('Location: http://<new domain>/<page-url>'); after step 1.

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  • Thank you so much Kannan for the solution.
    – Anil
    Commented Jun 16, 2021 at 1:04
  • Received an email from the client and they are saying "we do not need to add another tracker on the old site to analyze incoming traffic to that old landing page. We do not need to track how people are ending up on the old site (before they’re redirected to the new site); we ONLY need to track the incoming traffic to the new site FROM the old site". My question is,do we still need to follow the steps you mentioned above? Or we can track the redirects from old website to new website in Adobe Analytics?
    – Anil
    Commented Jun 16, 2021 at 1:05
  • An analytics program like GA or Adobe Analytics usually relies on either HTTP_REFERER or UTM parameters to show the source. However, after a 301/302 redirect, the browser is not mandated to preserve the HTTP_REFERER when sending the request to the new URL. Hence, the only reliable option will be to add UTM parameters before redirecting. Thus you can see the source from Adobe Analytics of the new domain.
    – Kannan
    Commented Jun 16, 2021 at 2:37

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