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Spoof referrer to Google Analytics?

Whenever a user visits "Page A" on my site, I immediately redirect him to "Page B" by setting window.location with Javascript. "Page A" has no Google Analytics tracking on it -- when someone is redirected from "Page A" to "Page B" I want to track him as if he entered the site via "Page B". Unfortunately, my current setup breaks referrer information since people who are redirected to "Page B" appear to Google Analytics as if they came from "Page A":

alt text http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2792776/screenshots/2010-05-06_1402.png

After users are redirected to "Page B", I want to tell Google Analytics their "real" referrer (i.e., the referrer to "Page A"). How can I do this?

(Note: I realize that using a real HTTP redirect instead of a Javascript-based redirect would solve this problem. Unfortunately this isn't an option)

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Tom Lehman Avatar asked Oct 15 '22 06:10

Tom Lehman


1 Answers

Why are you not using a proper HTTP redirect?

It is the right way to redirect users, and it will not break Google Analytics.

Barring this option, I'm not sure you can use a JS redirect and maintain proper GA behavior. The browser decides which URL to send as the referrer, and this is not something you can control.

Actually, you can try to use the ?utm_nooverride=1 parameter. It's a long shot, but it just might work.

like image 191
Yuval Adam Avatar answered Oct 20 '22 17:10

Yuval Adam