Verifying that you’re tracking subdomains correctly in Google Analytics

Goal: Ensuring correct configuration of Google Analytics to track subdomains is essential.

Ideal Outcome: Achieving accurate tracking of users and sessions across all subdomains.

Prerequisites or requirements:

• Google Analytics must be operational on the website.

Importance: A flawed setup can lead to loss of crucial visitor data and distort business decisions.

Location: Configuration is performed within Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

Timing: This task is performed only once, during the initial setup of Google Analytics or during periodic checks to ensure the current setup’s effectiveness.

Responsibility: Website management personnel or analytics experts handle this task.

Blog Post Update: Google Analytics 4

💡 Note: Google introduced a new version of Google Analytics in October 2020. This version can coexist with the standard version “Universal Analytics.” Ensure you select the Universal Analytics property to follow this guide:

• Click on the Account Dropdown on the top left corner.
• Choose a view within your Universal Analytics property (Not the GA4 property).
• Note: The Universal Analytics property can be identified by the ‘UA-‘ prefix in the Property ID. Checking cookieDomain Configuration:
• Visit GA Checker → Enter domain and subdomains, ensuring “Universal Analytics” is selected for most pages.
• Note: Manually input all subdomains for thorough checking.
• Note 2: Certain pages may not be tracked or may not be HTML pages.
• If still using Classic Google Analytics, consider migrating to Universal Analytics. Check if Google Analytics setup utilizes Google Tag Manager:
• Ensure cookieDomain configurations are optimal if Google Analytics setup does not use Google Tag Manager.
• Verify usage of the built-in Universal Analytics Tag and Google Analytics settings variable:
  • Visit http://tagmanager.google.com and sign in.
  • Select the container set up on the website.
  • Navigate to “Tags” and search for “Universal Analytics.”
  • If no tags are found, the built-in Universal Analytics Tag is not used; no changes are required.
  • If tags are found, confirm one of them tracks Pageviews.
  • Ensure the tag uses the “Google Analytics Settings” field.
  • If not, consider using a Google Analytics settings variable.
  • Configure the “cookieDomain” field as “auto” if necessary. Checking Referral Exclusion List:
• Verify if the root domain is included in the Referral Exclusion List.
• If not included, add the root domain to the list. Adding a Hostname Filter:
• This step is optional and may affect other configurations.
• Log in to your Google Analytics account.
• Check for existing filters under “Filters” or navigate to Behaviour → Site Content → All pages.
• Take into account data aggregation from all subdomains.
• Subdomain information should be visible in reports after completing the steps outlined in the blog post.