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I'm doing an experiment for a realtor with a single property sites (e.g. 123address.com) and we want to track the various traffic sources but confused on the GA terminology

  1. agentsite.com featured properties page
  2. agentsite.com normal search results
  3. syndicated MLS data, this could appear on any domain that shows the 'virtual tour url'
  4. QR Code on the FOR SALE sign in yard
  5. typo redirect (it's a funny street name so we got a typo domain 123addresss.com)

I'm looking at this and wondering what I should enter https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en[1]

I know the agentsite.com should look like:

  1. Source: agentsite.com Medium: featured_properties
  2. Source: agentsite.com Medium: search_results
  3. Source: MLS Medium: virtual_tour
  4. Source: qrcode Medium: ???
  5. Source: 123addrez.com Medium: redirect?

I'm struggling with QR Code and typo redirect..QR code for example, I assume the Source would be "qrcode" but what would Medium be? the same? Does it matter?

Finally as I'm a total noob, should "Campaign Name" be the same for all of the above? "123 Address Sale"

1 Answer 1

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Okay so the first thing to make clear here is that you're using the Google Analytics URL Builder to add campaign parameters.

And you're correct, you're confused by the terminology used...

  • Source: The source sending the traffic via the URL.
  • Medium: What type of traffic is it.
  • Term: A term that identifies the specifics of the type of traffic.
  • Content: Distinguishes between different specifics.
  • Campaign: A name given to the overall campaign.

So, as an example, for offline QR codes:-

domain.com/?utm_source=offline&utm_medium=mobile&utm_term=signage&utm_content=for_sale_yards&utm_campaign=QR_Codes

This isn't an ideal scenario as from what I can gather, you're trying to add campaign tracking to a URL that will typically be triggered offline, but something such as the above, would allow you to clearly track a campaign for QR code referrals.

If this doesn't answer your question though, you'll have to be clearer about what you're trying to achieve and I'll modify my answer as necessary.

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In order to track typos of your domain, you could, create server aliases in your server vhost configuration for this...

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  • Thanks for the explanation. The only thing I was trying to achieve was to "make it look right". This is my first time doing any kinda campaign and we just wanted to make sure we'll be able to easily identify where the traffic comes from. If you have a better suggestion as to how you'd do it I'd be all ears. Would this be how I track typo domain redirects? domain.com/?utm_source=typo&utm_medium=redirect&utm_content=typodomain.com&utm_campaign=Typos
    – chrisan
    Commented Mar 31, 2014 at 12:03
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    How would visitors arrive at your URL's from typo's? If it is from directly typing in the domain incorrectly then the utm_source would be direct.
    – zigojacko
    Commented Mar 31, 2014 at 12:10
  • I was going to do a htaccess redirect to the correct domain with whatever GA vars, bad idea?
    – chrisan
    Commented Mar 31, 2014 at 13:52
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    That doesn't make much sense to me, the parameters in the URL can't contain typo's because it will be you who creates the URL. I'm unsure if I don't follow what you're trying to do or if you don't understand what the URL builder is designed for... :)
    – zigojacko
    Commented Mar 31, 2014 at 14:34
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    You can't really. Not without owning the domain in the first place to measure metrics. The only other way would be to use a tool such as Google Suggest or Google Trends to see if anyone is searching for misspelt versions of your domain. All the URL builder will do is track clicks on the URL's you build as campaigns but they have to be appended to the URL property in GA (which you subsequently have to own). There is one possibility for this (extending my answer).
    – zigojacko
    Commented Mar 31, 2014 at 15:09

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