Status: Tracking Not Installed
Last checked: Sep 30, 2015 5:58:00 AM PDT
The Google Analytics tracking code has not been detected on your website's home page. For Analytics to function, you or your web administrator must add the code to each page of your website.
So I corrected (ha!) the issue I mentioned in the previous post last night before going to bed. I checked my GA dashboard this morning to see a nice flatline. I checked the old account and still saw data there. This particular site was built earlier this month using Adobe Muse. I had not discovered the Twitter Bootstrap framework (OMFG) yet, and something that allowed mostly graphical UI generation + widgets + auto form generation seemed pretty appealing.
I am using the Google Analytics widget from www.j-26.com and it was pretty cake to install. I dropped 2 onto the page for both of the accounts but am wondering if that’s even a valid configuration. I spent more time chasing that this morning than I care to admit. Out of desperation I ripped out the widgets, and added the javascript directly into the page properties of my Master slides. The annoying part is that I can see the analytics verification queries coming from google in my access log:
“GET / HTTP/1.1” 200 9369 “-” “Google_Analytics_Snippet_Validator”
I even went as far as running tcpdump from the command line and packet dumping the entire session to ensure that the Validator was getting the entire page (it was correct in both the dump and browser-> view-source).
I was taking a break for coffee and errands when I realized that I’m running filtered views excluding my own IP address from, say, everything reporting option including realtime. I disabled my ‘exclude me’ filter and hit the Reporting->Real-Time->Overview and then hit the site repeatedly using an incognito browser and force reloading everything. Data shows up for the real time sessions. I can see both my desktop and mobile hit the site under that view.
The Admin->Property->Tracking Info->Tracking Code is still happily reporting Status: Tracking Not Installed, but at least I’m getting some data.
Takeaways: Disable your filters if you’re troubleshooting google analytics, if you’ve spent 3 hours staring at a problem, take a break, and be sure you try to find an alternative path that can lead to a solution by inference.
Anyone have a source that tells them how long it actually takes the GA system to realize it can talk to your property? It was pretty much instant last time I tried this, and I’m wondering if it is because I’m swinging a property from one GA account to another.
– Karl