This is my secret shame, but until today I never tried using event tracking. Probably because I assumed (until I was informed today) that event tracking and page tagging involved writing complex JavaScript, when in fact all you’re doing is calling a function and adding variables. I should have guessed that Google Analytics (and other software) would try to make this a painless process, but JavaScript still intimidates me sometimes.
I tested it out today by inserting events into the tabs in my portfolio pages in a simple onclick call:
<a href=”#” onClick=”pageTracker._trackEvent(’Tabs’, ‘Click’, ‘Project 1′);”>
I won’t get any data until at least tomorrow (assuming anyone clicks on it, but I clicked on all of them to make sure it works). Basically this code can be put into any section within your code that you want to track, such as downloads, video plays, clickthroughs, etc. Its a really powerful capability that I wish I would have tried out earlier but I think I’ll be using it plenty from here on out now that I see how easy it is.
All I had to worry about was the things inside the parentheses which translate to: ‘category’, ‘action’,'label’, ‘value‘. The last 2 things are optional, but what is nice is that you can name these in almost any way you want so that they are descriptive and unique. You can also keep categories and actions the same in different events if you want to associate like categories and actions.
Most depressing graph ever
Now I feel especially empowered to segment data further and drill down into the data of sites and pages to see what people are doing on the page for specific sections and dynamic elements. Web analytics is nerdy fun for me, don’t judge.
Aaaand…just as I quit all my soccer teams for the summer, I decided to play with the ZAAZ team. Oops. Today I got to play some with Web Trends and Omniture and I’m looking forward to learning more about the cool things they can do. Though apparently Google Analytics is catching up quickly.
I also wonder if I will be able to take the Microsoft Connector to work even though I’m part-time there. I hope so. I’m always jealous of their wi-fi and clean looking shuttles.
UPDATE: Huzzah! It worked.
A less depressing table
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[...] similar way, especially if someone has to decipher your tags later. It seems almost necessary for Google Analytics, where the user has almost complete freedom in naming each part of the event tracking tag. I will [...]