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
-
What is Local SEO in Google Analytics (Organic Source)
Recently, I saw "Local SEO" is mentioned as the organic source. Can someone please tell what is this and from where Google is fetching data for this source?
Reporting & Analytics | | Kevin.Monks0 -
% Change - Google analytics - how to calculate?
Hi All,
Reporting & Analytics | | JohnPalmer
I have two dates with two different numbers I want to calculate the "% Change" like google analytics, The numbers of June 2015 - 127,931 sessions
The numbers of June 2014 - 90914 sessions please tell me what is the %Change. Best. J0 -
Google Analytics Real Time Not Working! :(
Hello Everyone, Today, the real time feature in my google analytics stopped working. I am able to see that traffic is visiting my site, but not in real time. The real time count is usually at 0. But, there are some instances where real time will come back online, but there will be only 1 unique visitor. At any given time, our website usually has 20 visitors or so..Has anyone encountered this issue? Where should i start looking for fixes? What are the possible problems? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | KarlMarxTheBear0 -
How to safely exclude search result pages from Google's index?
Hello everyone,
Reporting & Analytics | | llamb
I'm wondering what's the best way to prevent/block search result pages from being indexed by Google. The way search works on my site is that search form generates URLs like:
/index.php?blah-blah-search-results-blah I wanted to block everything of that sort, but how do I do it without blocking /index.php ? Thanks in advance and have a great day everyone!0 -
Google Analytics VS target="_blank" internal links: How much wrong is it?
I am working on an e-commerce website, and our CEO is sure that having target="_blank" in internal search result is boosting the conversion (not sure, but it's not an issue at the moment). The problem is that Google Analytics sees all URLs visited from search results as entrances/direct visits, hence the Booking Funnel Tracking does not work as it was supposed to. Is there any way to recover the tracking? Or we shall get the rid of target="_blank" attribute?
Reporting & Analytics | | apartmentGin0 -
Setting Up Google Analytic with Sub Folder Sites
What is the best way of setting up Google Analytic for a website that has many sub folders? The main site is example.com and it has 40 sub folder sites like example.com/uk example.com/France etc etc Would it be advised to track a single domain in Google Analytic then create filters for the sub folder sites. Filters > Include traffic from > Sub directories Also with this method is it possible to view overall incoming website stats for everything? Previous experience would be great with this thanks 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | daracreative0 -
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 -
How do shortened links show up in Google Analytics?
Hey, How do shortened links show up in GA? So if I tweet about something and use bitly, does twitter get the referral? I am thinking not. I have never seen bitly show up as a referrer, but we gets lots of clicks from those links. Hmmmm. Anyone? E
Reporting & Analytics | | ErinTM0