CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-analytics
pastic
pastic

Reputation: 575

two domains, same tracking snippet?

I am not well-versed in analytics. I have set up a page (example2.com) for a client who already has a site (example1.com). The two sites serve different content but under the same "business umbrella". They sent me the analytics tracking snippet that they use on example1.com and said to use that on example2.com, which I have done.

I am uncertain if this will work, but do not want to question them directly at this stage.

Should they have set up a new property for example2.com? I am afraid they know as little as I do and that we are creating problems with our collective ignorance. Or is it all just a question of how they prefer to track?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 40

Answers (1)

Eike Pierstorff
Eike Pierstorff

Reputation: 32770

Technically this would work. They can collect data under a single tracking id and then use "views" (the areas in the interface where you actually see the data) that filter by hostname.

So in one view you would exclude views from domain2.com, in the other view you'd exclude domain1.com and you would have two sets of reports, one for each domain.

One reason to do this would be if you wanted to have a "rollup view", i.e. if you want to know how many pageviews and sessions you have for both of your domains combined.

While it is not exactly recommended by Google to have two independent domains in one property you won't get rollup reporting any other way in the free version of GA, so that would be a valid reason to track this way.

There are resources that are shared between views, but not between properties (i.e. custom dimensions/metrics) and some of the data might not necessarily make sense in a rollup report (e.g. averages do not make sense when calculated over two different data sets; also the rollup report will lump similar page paths together) but for many sites this would not be a problem.

So if they set up their views properly this would be okay and even useful (although it does not quite match the intended use for properties and views).

Upvotes: 1

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