Redirecting one domain to another using utm tags
-
I have two live websites, which have both been live for over 10 years, so we have plenty of backlinks to both...domain1.com & domain2.com. Domain 1 and all urls is being merged into domain2.com.
So 301 redirects will be setup for every page of the site....domain1.com/abc-1234/ to > domain2.com/abc-1234/
In Google analytics for domain2.com we want to be able to see which visits we have received as a result of a redirect from domain1.com. It is possible to see these visits that come in via organic, referrals and social etc, as those will come to us with the referral as domain1.com. However, with direct traffic, i.e. if someone types domain1.com into their search bar, these visits will be assigned as direct and we are not able to tell in GA if those users have typed in domain2.com, or domain1.com to get to our webpage.
There are some suggestions in forums of adding utm_source tracking to all redirects (and add canonicals to those urls pointing to the non utm_source version), but my concern is that Google is going to have to go through one extra step to reach the page on the redirected domain.
So without the utm source code Google will follow this route
domain1.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/With the utm source code Google will follow this route
domain.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/?utm_source... then see's canonical, so moves to domain2.com/123/So essentially I am giving Google one extra step to follow before it gets to the equivalent page on the new site.
Is this an issue, and/or are there any other ways to track this redirection without adding extra parameters to the url?
-
Thanks Paul,
We managed to get around the issue by using Redis to store the the url from the first domain in a temp database and then this data is used to create a custom GA dimension on the page they land on - which means we don't need to add any parameters to track these redirects.
-
The approach you're using is correct and no, you're not really adding an extra step. That's not how canonical works.
A canonical is not a redirect like a 301. It's just an instruction (suggestion actually) to ignore the URL variables when determining the URL of the page. It will have zero effect on the transmission of the ranking authority through the 301-redirect.
The challenge you will have though, is if you create your own UTM tag to generate the source of the visit as being from the old domain1's 301 redirect, it's going to overwrite ALL the other source/medium info from the original site's visit. So domain2's Analytics isn't going to record the source of the original site1 visit as social, organic, referral etc. All redirected visits will get whatever source/medium you designated in your UTM tag.
It may be possible to programmatically catch the original traffic source on domain1 and programmatically write the UTM tags to include it in the 301, but I wouldn't know how to suggest trying to go about it.
Paul
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
UTM Links Showing Up as Separate Pages in Google Analytics
Hey everyone, I was just looking at landing pages in Google Analytics, and in addition to just the URL of the landing page, the UTM links are being listed as separate pages. Is this normal? I anticipated seeing the landing page URL and then using the secondary dimension to see source/medium. If this isn't normal, what would I check next?
Reporting & Analytics | | rachelmeyer0 -
Spam using Hostname so filter not working
Hello, on one of our sites, we have filtered via the hostname. We have done this on other sites quite happily but on this particular new website, when we add in the hostname filter, we still get loads of direct and referral traffic which is junk - and the hostname of these junk referrals are the website's domain. So it seems that this filter is not working or the spam are now using the hostname? Not sure what is going on or how to solve this?
Reporting & Analytics | | AL123al0 -
Domain redirect for direct mail (source) tracking in Analytics?
We have a client that would like to do some direct mail marketing and the plan is to use a short/simple domain in the marketing materials, which redirects to the main site domain. By default this would show as a referral traffic source in Analytics, right? So any traffic that came through that redirect would be attributed to "shortdomain.com / referral"? Meaning I wouldn't need to do any sort of customized, advanced tracking set up to track conversions that I've already set up (ecomm and goals) and attribute them to this new source? Just double checking that I'm not overlooking something. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | VTDesignWorks0 -
Using Filters On Google Analytics
Hi Guys, I am In need of some technical help with regards to Google analytics. One of my clients has a site providing HR Software on SaaS basis. The users login via the site for the various HR Tools. Obviously this is skewing the analytics data and showing 10,000+ extra visitors that actually don't exist. Now I understand i can add filters and exclude certain pages for instance the login page, however, some users will visit the home page then click login. How can I exclude them just to show new visitors to the site rather than users that are just trying to login. Hope this makes sense Neil
Reporting & Analytics | | nezona0 -
How to find backlinks from GWT domains
Given the list of GWT domains that link to our site, what is an easy way to find the actual pages on those domains that link to our site? Best,
Reporting & Analytics | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0 -
Disavow links.??.Any One
Hi There, Just checking Google webmasters for one website. I have download a list links that was show in webmasters under "Links to Your Site". And found that there are few not found urls that or expired domain. May be that belongs to very old links building on bookmarking websites. I am thinking to submit all these links list in disavow links. Your thoughts.?
Reporting & Analytics | | lucidsoftech0 -
Transfer Google Analytics data from one user to another?
Long story short, two weeks of analytics data are stored on a different profile from the rest of the year's data. Is there a way to export all data from a date range, and then import it to another account? Thanks for your help.
Reporting & Analytics | | AmericanOutlets0 -
Using Clients GA account for their over all website to Optimize Their Blog? or is there a better way to compare apples to apples
I would like to optimize my clients blog. If I am using their GA account for their over all website but put in the sub folder for SEOMOz, will it detect that I only want to optimize the blog ex. http://xxx.com/blog or will I be seeing the GA for the entire site on SEOMOZ?
Reporting & Analytics | | CliffordC0