{"id":1413,"date":"2010-11-01T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2010-11-01T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2010-11-01T12:00:53","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T10:00:53","slug":"google-analytics-event-tracking-vs-virtual-pageviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/google-analytics-event-tracking-vs-virtual-pageviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Analytics: Event Tracking vs Virtual Pageviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"google-analytics-tracking\"Assume that visitors are arriving at a landing page of your website, what\u2019s their next step? How do they interact<\/strong> before leaving that page? In this article we focus on how to use the 2 advanced tracking options that Google Analytics provides: the Event Tracking<\/strong> and the Virtual Pageview<\/strong>. Both are useful, but it is important to understand why<\/strong> and how<\/strong> to use them.<\/p>\n

Tracking User\u2019s behaviour<\/h2>\n

Tracking various types of interactions within web pages enables you to monitor<\/strong> the user\u2019s behavior<\/strong> and improve<\/strong> the performance<\/strong> of various elements. These types can vary from file downloads to purchases, from a visit to an external booking engine to a subscription or to an interaction with a flash element (i.e. video player, widget)<\/p>\n

Tip:<\/strong> Lack of interaction monitoring leads to the loss of valuable<\/strong> information related to user behavior and to increased bounce rate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Event Tracking vs Virtual Pageviews<\/h2>\n

With Google Analytics it is easy to solve issues like the ones stated above by using the Event Tracking or the Virtual Pageview feature. The Event Tracking is a good way to track browser events<\/strong>, clicks<\/strong> on outbound links and other interactions that do not generate a typical pageview. On the other hand, a Virtual Pageview also generates trackable pageviews but it provides a smaller amount of information.<\/p>\n

The Difference between Event Tracking & Virtual Pageviews<\/h2>\n

The key difference between those two tracking methods is that (at the moment) the Event Tracking cannot be assigned to Goals<\/strong>. Another significant difference is that virtual pageviews can inflate<\/strong> the pageviews of a website. This can be solved by creating a secondary profile using same id and filter out the virtual pageviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/th>\nEvent Tracking<\/th>\nVirtual Pageview<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Bounce Rate<\/td>\nReduced Bounce Rate<\/td>\nReduced Bounce Rate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Page Views<\/td>\nNo increase on total pageviews<\/td>\nArtificial increase on total pageviews<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Detailed Tracking<\/td>\nTracks more details correlated to actions<\/td>\nLimited information<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Goals<\/td>\nNot supported<\/td>\nSupported<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Limitations<\/td>\nUp to 500 GATC requests per session<\/td>\nUp to 500 GATC requests per session<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

How to Implement the Event Tracker Code<\/h2>\n

To implement the Even Tracker, just call the following function on each event that you wish to track:<\/p>\n

_gaq.push([`_trackEvent`, `category`, `action`,\u00a0 `optional label`, opt_integer_value]);<\/strong><\/div>\n

In the code of the Event Tracking one can assign information from categories<\/strong> and actions<\/strong> to labels and values. This feature helps both developers and online marketers to setup a friendly structure<\/strong> of events and monitor user actions within the website.<\/p>\n

\n\"google-analytics-event-tracking\"\n<\/div>\n

Naming properly the categories, the actions and the labels will make the report easier to understand and \u00a0it will help you interpret more accurately the data within your Google Analytics Event Report.\u00a0 To find the Event Tracking Report, login into your Analytics account and open the Event Tracking under the Content Category. \u00a0This report includes what actions have been done, on which page or element, how many visits have generated events, how many events have been counted per visit etc.<\/p>\n