Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
"index.htm" for all url's in google analytics
-
I don't have this issue with other wordpress websites, only this one website, and I don't know what's causing the issue:
Google Analytics is adding an "index.htm" to every single page on the website. So it is tracking the pages, I see no errors - is it tracking the right page? When I click on the page link in a report, I naturally go to a "404 page not found" since the website address isn't "www.example.com/rewards/index.htm" - but instead the actual address would be:
"www.example.com/rewards/".I have navigated to View Settings in GA to insure "default page" is empty. Although adding anything else to this field does not effect the page url in analytics reports either.
Could it be htaccess file - or a plugin effecting the htaccess file?_Cindy
-
Hi _Cindy,
Please do update about the results, it might help us all learn something new.
Regards,
Vijay
-
Vijay,
Thank you for sending the link. I did read google's info about the default setting and thought adding index.htm(l) would actually remove it, as say permalinks feature does, not add it.
My default page setting is clear now and I'm just wondering how long it will take to get clean urls, since this does seem to be the issue.
I guess I could create a filter in GA, but lunametrics provides examples to add the index.htm(l) or .php and I would want to remove it, if possible, and my regex is not up to speed here.
But I do believe this default page is the issue and will get back to you.
thanks again! _Cindy
-
Hi Cindy,
I did some research and found a solution here, it looks like a settings issue in google analytics and not any plugin. Let me know if this works for you.
http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2010/12/17/cleaning-urls-google-analytics/
If it doesn't then, I would like to dig further.
Looking forward to your response.
Regards,
Vijay
-
I am still grappling with this "index.htm" issue - appended on all urls, and sometimes the correct url is listed along with it, ex:
/about-us and also /about-us/index.htm
I've manually added the UA code to my header file in wordpress. I removed the plugin that was previously configuring the GA account.
In GA for such Acquisition reports as 'Adwords|Final URLs' and 'Search Console|Landing Pages' and 'Social|Landing Pages' the urls are listed properly with NO index.htm.
But all urls listed within the Behavior reports, mostly that would be 'Site Content' all append the index.htm.
Could it be the Inbound Landing Page plugin, which I can not turn off for how long to see results? Is there something in the .htaccess file I should look for?
Additionally I am setting up a ghost spam filter in GA (through the hostname dimension in the Network report - article by Carlos Escalera in the Moz Blog) and I see the UA code for the property listed there - why would this be in that report? Related in any way?
Still in search mode and any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
site in question: dupontservicecenter.com
_Cindy
-
I have used google tag assistant - showing no issues.
I deleted the WordPress plugin (monster insights) and manually inserted GA code in header file.
Still I am getting "index.htm" appended to end of all urls in Google Analytics.
It doesn't seem to be effecting the metrics in GA, but still would like to know why this is happening on this one client site and not other client sites where I have those sites setup the same.
could it be another plugin?
Can I filter out the "index.htm" for the entire property so that the urls read correctly? If so, is this an acceptable solution?
in GA admin | view | view settings | default page I have inserted "index.htm" but this has no effect.
any help again would be greatly appreciated.
the site in question: dupontservicecenter
-
Hi _Cindy,
It seems to be resolved, at least at the collection level. It could be a filter in GA though.
If you ever see values in GA that look unusual, a great tool to debug GA data collection is the Google Chrome extensions, Google Tag Assistant.
Just click the extension icon and it will display what data is being sent to Google Analytics. In this case, just click "1 Pageview Request" and then click "URLs," then display the data as a table to see exactly what is being sent to Google Analytics.
Hope that helps this time and in the future.
-
Thank you Martijn. I was going to use filters to eliminate the "index.htm" - but I need to understand what's different here; my other sites are not experiencing this issue, without adding a filter in GA, so why then is this one site, and will it effect the metrics?
The only difference between this site setup is that the client was using, and wanted to continue using, Yoast Google Analytics... (now monster insights plugin) - so maybe that's it, my trackers?
here's the site dupontservicecenter.com
Very much appreciate your help.
_Cindy
-
Hi
Have you checked your filters in Google Analytics? Otherwise are you able to share the site so I can take a look by debugging your trackers?
M.
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
-
Whatstuffwherebot user agent messing up Google Analytics
Starting yesterday, Aug 26, 2020, I noticed a new bot crawling our site with user agent whatstuffwherebot. Google Analytics is counting these hits as human traffic, completely throwing off my numbers - yesterday, Analytics reported nearly triple my typical number of visitors. As of now, Search Console only shows data through Aug 25 so I don't know if Search Console is also affected. Is anybody else seeing something similar? Does anybody know what the whatstuffwherebot bot is? I don't get any results when I search on Google or Bing. For what it's worth, the traffic is coming from Columbus, OH, running over Amazon AWS via 278 different IP addresses so far. Also, WordFence (my WordPress security plugin) correctly identifies these hits as bot traffic.
Reporting & Analytics | | ahirai0 -
Tasks for Google Analytics training
Hi Mozzers, I'm delivering some Google Analytics (Fundamentals level) training, and trying to make it was fun and as interesting as possible... which is quite a challenge when it comes to GA. I was just wondering if you're aware of training tasks, or interactions, I could bring into this kind of training session? The group are particularly interested in user journeys and the effectiveness of content. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | A_Q0 -
Google Analytics reporting traffic for 404 pages
Hi guys, Unique issue with google analytics reporting for one of our sites. GA is reporting sessions for 404 pages (landing pages, organic traffic) e.g. for this page: http://www.milkandlove.com.au/breastfeeding-dresses/index.php the page is currently a 404 page but GA (see screenshot) is reporting organic traffic (to the landing page). Does anyone know any reasons why this is happening? Cheers. http://www.milkandlove.com.au/breastfeeding-dresses/index.php GK0zDzj.jpg
Reporting & Analytics | | jayoliverwright2 -
How do I manually add transactions to Google Analytics
We are seeing Google Analytic's drop transaction on our site so therefore all the figures are skewed. Is there a way I can manually add transactions to GA to cover the missing one?
Reporting & Analytics | | Towelsrus0 -
Bing Won't Index Site - Help!
For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out why my client's site is not indexed on bing and yahoo search engines. My Google analytics is telling me I’m getting traffic (very little traffic) from Bing almost daily but Bing webmaster tools is telling me I’ve received no traffic and no pages have been indexed into Bing since the beginning of December. At once point I was showing ranking in Bing for only one keyword then all of a sudden none of my pages were being indexed and I now rank for nothing for that website. From Google I’m getting over 1200 visits per month. I have been doing everything I can to possibly find the culprit behind this issue. I feel like the issue could be a redirect problem. In webmaster tools on Bing I’ve used “Fetch as Bingbot” and every time I use it I get a Status of “Redirection limit reached.”. I also checked the CRAWL Information and it’s saying all the URL’s to the site are under 301 redirect. A month or so ago the site was completely revamped and the canonical URL was changed from non www to www. I have tried manually adding pages to be indexed multiple times and Bing will not index any of the sites pages. I have submitted the sitemap to Bing and I am now at a loss. I don’t know what’s going on and why I can’t get the site listed on Bing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
Reporting & Analytics | | VITALBGS
Stephen0 -
Weird info from google analytics?
Hi Could anyone explain what these visits are in Google Analytics? Under traffic sources and organic I am seeing lots of entries with data like below. Any ideas what kind of traffic this is? Is it a bot and if so what is their purpose of it and is it recommended that you block it? Pages/Visit 1.00 Avg. Time on Site 00:00:00 % New Visits : 100% Bounce Rate: 100.00% Many Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | ocelot0 -
Setting up Google Analytics default URL
If someone has set: the default url in Google Analytics to a non-www address (http://mysite.com) then placed the UA tracking script from that GA account within the CMS framework of the website... ... and then set the permanent 301 redirect in the htaccess file to redirect to the www address (http://www.mysite.com). How less accurrate will my GA analytics measurements be considering the default url within GA is non-www and the permanent 301 redirect in htacess is to the www-address? Anyone know how reliable GA reports are until the default url in GA analytics is changed to match what is the redirected url in htaccess file? _Cindy
Reporting & Analytics | | CeCeBar0 -
AW Stats vs Google Analytics
Hey Moz Community, I am looking to get opinions on the best practice for analytics/traffic analysis. From experience I know that AW Stats reads high and Google Analytics reads low for traffic for reason in this article http://www.smartz.com/blog/2009/01/23/analytic-confusion-%E2%80%93-awstats-vs-google-analytics/ It drives me a little nuts how far off both are for some pages. I have one article that shows 100 views (GA) and AW stats shows 5 times that number of views. Any suggestions or systems you recommend? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | johnshearer0