Comments on: Overcoming Obstacles – How To Use Virtual Pageviews in Google Analytics To Track Conversion

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:44:18 +0000

Thanks for the post. Is there any potential SEO impact of using Virtual Page Views? Can it slow site speed? Any do’s and don’ts to avoid these kind of negative impacts?

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:00:39 +0000

In reply to Keesjan.

Thanks for your comment Keesjan. The code I used only triggers when the form submits. If you validate before submission, it shouldn’t trigger twice. Also, conversions are session-based, so it would only calculate that conversion once for that user session. I hope that helps.

By: Keesjan

Keesjan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:48:33 +0000

Hi, great post.
Do you know of a way to NOT measuring incomplete forms. IN your example the VPT is called on the submit button.
But what when people:
filled the form incomplete,
click submit,
get a message that tell them to complete the form
and submit again.

Then 2 VPT conversions are made?

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:01:34 +0000

Sorry to keep writing all over your comments! 🙂 For anyone else having the same issue as me, I have had it confirmed that yes, you can call a virtual pageview without it having to be an onclick event, by modifying the first call to track Pageview, as in the code above. Phew!

By: Liz

Liz — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:34:38 +0000

Thanks Glenn. I probably didn’t make it clear that they can’t use a set URL as the thank you page, due to the way that the site is set up- the url is dynamically generated to track certain values through to their booking system, so it has different variables in each time. As well as this, if they used the same thank you page, all the different goals in Google Analytics (products) would have a conversion added to them, although they are different goals / products.

So it isn’t possible to put a virtual pageview on a page *without* an event like a button? Or is a virtual pageview always an “onclick” or “onsubmit” event?

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:10:46 +0000

In reply to Liz.

Hi Liz.

If you are sending visitors to a thank you page, then that’s the destination URL you should use for your conversion goal. When visitors reach that page, it tells Google Analytics that the user “converted”. They don’t necessarily have to click to another page to convert (GA-wise).

Also, you can use buttons or links to trigger virtual pageviews, which can be used as destination URL’s for a conversion goal. I couldn’t tell if you knew that based on your comment, but wanted to make sure I explained it. For example, if a form posts back to itself or if you have an AJAX-style form that doesn’t push visitors to another page.

I hope that helps.

By: Liz

Liz — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:03:36 +0000

Thanks for the great article. I have not had to use pageviews much to date, but a new client’s website means that they use virtual pageviews throughout the conversion process, on each “Next” button. On the thank you page, there is no “Next” button. My question is, can you use virtual pageviews without an event? Could you just include the virtual pageview name in the main GA code, eg:

var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-XXXXXXX’]);
_gaq.push([‘_trackPageview”/vpv/thankyou/’]);

Or something similar? I hope this isn’t a dumb question- just trying to get my head around this as a non developer! 🙂

By: Deniz

Deniz — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:54:17 +0000

Hi Glenn – great post.

Just trying to implement VPVs for the example you explained (no unique url after form posts), but have a scenario whereby the url returned needs to have the transaction amount for affiliate reporting.

Is this possible?

Thanks!

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:05:56 +0000

In reply to Benjamin.

No problem @Benjamin. Add this code to the link in order to trigger a virtual pageview. After setting this up, test it out and then check your content reporting in GA to make sure it shows up.

onclick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/vpv/btnname’);”

You should make sure that your code is using “pageTracker” as the variable name and you can change the button name to whatever you like.

I hope that helps.

GG
.-= Glenn Gabe recently posted: Welcome to the Jungle- I Mean Boardroom – Presenting The True Return on Investment ROI of Social Media Marketing =-.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:22:04 +0000

Hi
Im trying to set a virtual page view on my site and i just didnt understand it much…
I have a “get it now” button on my homepage and since the “goal” page is not in my site (its not the same domain) so i cant set it as a goal,so i wanted to set as a goal,the “get it now” button,when someone is clicking on it so i would like to know and see it to understand what is my CTR…
can you please give me an idea how to do that?