Important Information Before Starting

This Google Analytics section is about configuring the Google Analytics module in a OSU Drupal 7 website by a site architect. This is for advanced Google Analytics users who have a customized need for particular types of data. The university's universal Google analytics typically provide everything that most users will need in terms of data.

  1. Your OSU Drupal 7 site already has OSU's Google Analytics tracking set up. Anyone at Oregon State University can either view the public analytics dashboard or request access to the universal analytics account.
  2. If you are a site architect and would like to create your own Google Analytics account for just your site, the following section will walk you through this process.
  3. You want to check if your site already has a Google Analytics tracking ID added to the site, under Admin > Appearance > Settings > Doug Fir.
  4. You only want to have your tracking ID entered in your site once, either through the appearance settings OR via this module. If you put the tracking ID into both places, your data won't be accurate. Your pageviews will be doubled and your bounce rate will be affected.
  5. Once you add a tracking ID to this module, it can't be removed. You need to request for the module to be disabled.

Overview

The Google Analytics module adds the ability to fine tune things such as:

  • What type of links are tracked (downloads, outgoing and mailto)
  • What files are downloaded from your pages
  • Access denied (403) and Page not found (404) tracking
  • ...and quite a bit more

The only downside regarding use of the Google Analytics module is that it requires the user to have an individual Google Analytics account, which also requires that the user have a separate Google account. How this is handled is up to whoever is in charge of the site, but it's strongly suggested that this account is one that multiple people can have access to. In other words, NOT your OSU G Suite account. Providing people with your ONID username and password to log in to your OSU G Suite account is actually a violation of OSU's Acceptable Use Policy Section 5.1.4 c. Instructions for creating a new Google Analytics account are provided below.