Sendind the log files from the firewall directly to the log server solved the problem.

Thanks for the help.

My last thought is that the log file format may be incorrect. Make sure that your server is configured according to the Urchin 6 instructions. Not only must it log cookies, but they must be in a specific format.

Hope that helps,

Justin

Thanks for the response.

I checked a couple of things and noticed that the Cookie information for utm.gif when viewed through Firefox/Firebug is different than the cookie information written to the log file.

It’s displays utma, utmc, etc. when viewed in the browser, but replaces all of the cookie information along with the utm info when written to the log files. Not sure if this is firewall related or what.

I’m open for suggestions.

I would check a couple things:

1. Make sure you filters are identical for Urchin and GA
2. Make sure you’re looking at the same date range.
3. Double check the UTM setup in Urchin and make sure that your log is storing cookies, you’re not using an IP based tracking method and that the __utm.gif request to your local server is not generating a 404 error.

Hope that helps,

Justin

Added this to the ga.js tracking code:
pageTracker._setLocalRemoteServerMode();

However, my “visits and pageviews” within Urchin are showing as 67 visits, 101 page views. In Google Analytics they are showing as 2,122 visits, 8,835 page views.

I’ve read that Google Analytics can show lower results than Urchin, but not the other way around and not this drastically.

I’ve spent days on this and haven’t come up with anything. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Unfortunately no, it is not possible to find the number of unique visitors that view a specific page title.

Thanks for the question,

Justin

Is it possible to find out the number of unique visitors (not unique views) by title with Google Analytics?

Thanks

Thanks for the question. Right now, there is no way to measure AdSense revenue in Google Analytics. I hope this feature is added soon.

Justin

Thank you

Enormous percentages of conversions are not attributed to advertising I know to be generating those sales. I have been told that GA is configured to use last visit, causing the PPC and other referrer tracking to be overwritten. That would explain the data I’m seeing.

Is it true that the original PPC tracking will be overwritten in each of these circumstances?

1. By a click on another PPC ad
2. By a click on an organic listing
3. By a visit through a referral link on another site

I also see conversions attributed to referrals from the sites’ shopping carts, the sites’ search functions, and alternate forms of the domain names (www. versus non-www. versus store.domainname.com). Do any or all of these also result in the loss of the PPC ad tracking? Could this be improved or remedied by altering the GA configuration?

If a buyer who has a cookie from a PPC ad or other referring source types the site URL into their browser does that conversion end up as Direct instead of as the result of those referrals?

If all or most of the above are true the result is that PPC advertising will appear to be ineffective when in fact it is generating sales that are being attributed to other sources. I believe the solution is for GA to use first visit instead of last for conversion tracking.

Can GA be reconfigured to use first visit? Would it violate Google’s TOS to do so?

I would go so far a to make a business case for Google to change the default for conversion tracking to first visit. As tracking is now, advertisers are cutting general keywords and spending based on poor conversion rates when in fact they have incomplete data. Cutting that spending can dramatically lower revenue because the PPC ads are the source.

This is resulting in loss of income to both Google and the advertisers. I believe using first visit would be more accurate. Are there any drawbacks that you know of or could foresee in changing to first versus last visit tracking?

Thank you for sharing your time, knowledge, and wisdom.
Rose