VitalSite can automatically track several extra components, including outbound link clicks, download errors, bad inbound links and more.
As the old adage says, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Google Analytics (GA) gives you lots of data and ways to evaluate usage patterns and user trends on your website. So much data, in fact, that it can be overwhelming. But if you have a sophisticated content management system and you’re just using GA “out of the box,” you’re missing important parts of the online experience.
That’s why Geonetric’s CMS, VitalSite, can be set up to track a number of extra components automatically! For example:
- Outbound: Ordinarily, you simply lose track of visitors when they click on a link that leaves the site. You can’t follow visitors off the site, but you can capture when a visitor clicks an outbound link.
- MailTo: If you have links to trigger email, wouldn’t it be nice to know how often?
- Download: File downloads are notoriously difficult to track. The file doesn’t run any JavaScript and doesn’t trigger any tracking in Google Analytics. VitalSite can track when someone clicks a link on a page in your site, even a link to download a document.
- Error: Errors, particularly bad inbound links, are inevitable. VitalSite can effectively track where these bad links originate and where they’re going.
- Google Translate: Google Translate is an interesting but controversial feature to add to your website. Does anyone actually use it? Analytics is the only way to truly know.
Customized Reporting with Script Manager
VitalSite’s Script Manager was created initially to support the transition to Google’s new Universal Analytics – allowing us to coordinate changes to code and analytics without adding stacks of outside calls to third-party tag management tools.
But the benefits go beyond just supporting Universal Analytics. This capability allows a wide range of customized code to be added to different pages on client sites, including these custom Google Analytics tracking behaviors. It’s just another way we give our clients even more insight and help arm them with the information they need to make decisions.
