Code Update: Tracking Traffic from Press Releases in Google Analytics

Back in January 2009, I wrote a post on how to track traffic from Press Releases in Google Analytics. That posts referenced the old synchronous version of the Google Analytics tracking code and needed a code update with the most recent tracking code release by Google, featuring asynchronous code execution.

Please note that I am not going to re-do the entire post, just the code portion.

So here is the code update:

Traditional Snippet (Synchronous):

<script type="text/javascript">
var srcPage = getDomain (document.referrer);
var parameter = get_parameter('id');

function get_parameter(name)
{
  name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
  var regexS = "[\\?&#]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
  var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
  var results = regex.exec(window.location.href);
    if( results == null )
      return "";
    else
      return results[1];
}

function getDomain (thestring) {
  var urlpattern = new RegExp("(http|ftp|https)://(.*?)/.*$");
  var parsedurl = thestring.match(urlpattern);
      if( parsedurl == null )
       return "";
      else
        return parsedurl[2];
}

if (parameter == '1')
{
    window.location.hash = "utm_source="+srcPage+"&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=hurricane_katrina";
}
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setAllowAnchor(true);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Asynchronous Snippet (NEW):

<script type="text/javascript">
var srcPage = getDomain (document.referrer);
var parameter = get_parameter('id');

function get_parameter(name)
{
  name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
  var regexS = "[\\?&#]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
  var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
  var results = regex.exec(window.location.href);
    if( results == null )
      return "";
    else
      return results[1];
}

function getDomain (thestring) {
  var urlpattern = new RegExp("(http|ftp|https)://(.*?)/.*$");
  var parsedurl = thestring.match(urlpattern);
      if( parsedurl == null )
       return "";
      else
        return parsedurl[2];
}

if (parameter == '1')
{
    window.location.hash = "utm_source="+srcPage+"&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=hurricane_katrina";
}
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-X']);
  _gaq.push(['_setAllowAnchor', true]);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script>

Related Posts:

• Tracking Traffic from Press Releases in Google Analytics