Ideas
+3
Feature request: Canonical url
We have noticed since we launched that there are always multiple entries for a story in our analytics. Any changes that affect the url create a new entry, but we've also seen multiple url entries even when there are no changes to the url. We just started using a new analytics platform, Parsely, and they suggested that a fix would be having a canonical URL that directs all the pages to would solve this issue. We'd have better data about the use of our content if everything pointed to the same canonical url.
Submitted this as a feature request and adding it here to get support.
Customer support service by UserEcho
OMG..this exact issue is one of the biggest problems in my (professional) life.
I'm currently doing the following: Python script to query the google analytics api, save to csv, parse csv to eliminate cruft, dump url/page titles to database, group names/urls in database, then export report, format in html and FTP to web server for distribution. I've done significant CAR/investigative projects that require less code than my daily traffic reports.
Wow! Definitely not going to those lengths. But I was confused because in the ticket, Christine Masters said they do have a cannonical url, but I can't figure out how to make Google and Parsely look at that so if you do, let me know!
Hi Elizabeth!
We do use canonical URLs on articles - if you view source you will see the canonical tag there, like this:
link rel="canonical" href="http://host.madison.com/tncms/asset/editorial/516e6cf1-c0a3-55d0-a949-cf8e1cd1f423/" /
That is the "permanent" URL of the article, and not the same thing that is visible in the address bar.
The URL that's in the address bar may sometimes change due to changes in the section or the title of the asset. But the canonical always remains the same.
It sounds like the analytics are looking at the address bar URL, instead of the canonical. Does that make sense?