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Say url www.mysite.com is registered in Google Analytics and the tracking ID is UA-12345678-90.

What happens if another site with URL www.anothersite.com uses this ID too? Does analytic count visits from both sites or does it only take visits from www.mysite.com into account?

What happens if there is a redirect from www.anothersite.com to www.mysite.com?

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    If there is a redirection then the analytics will only trigger on the target site and it will be as usual. I'm not sure about the first half of your question though.
    – Itai
    Mar 27, 2013 at 15:18

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It depends on the type of redirect. If you have a Javascript or Meta Refresh redirect with Google Analytics running on that page, then Google might track the page if the pause between loading the page, loading the Google Analytics tracking script and the redirect is long enough.

If you have a server redirect, then no Javascript code is actually triggered client-side, thus no pagetrack is being recorded.

Now, if someone hijacks your Google Analytics ID and reuses it on another website, well, then you are out of luck, since Google does include that traffic in your reports. You need to filter that traffic out, or better, add an include filter to only add traffic from your domains you want tracked.

Include Heaven

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  • Good illustrated answer, nice one +1. Mar 27, 2013 at 16:20
  • I tried the above method but didn't get any results as those urls are still being shown in my data. Is this applicable to new data? Can't it exclude those URLs from my previous data? Thanks Apr 8, 2013 at 12:35
  • Google Analytics filters only apply to new traffic and does not re-calculate past traffic. If you need to modify your past data, you need to set up a filter with "Advanced Segments" and apply that to the dashboard you are currently viewing.
    – David K.
    Apr 9, 2013 at 9:01

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