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google-analyticsgoogle-tag-managergoogle-analytics-filters

Track events of an excluded Page

New to Google Analytics- I need to exclude a URL for a View but still need to track events from Google Tag Manager.

Situation: I have a page which loads dynamically with different content in the same URL. EX: Start,Step1,Step2,Step3,Finish.

I needed to track all these steps separate and create a goal funnel(without a required start page). To track these I used Google Tag Manager to create Page Views(virtual) and but I had to exclude the actual URL since it was triggering the goals twice. Issue is that, when I create a event (say a click) in the page, Tag manager is sending that to Analytics but there it is not getting captured since the url is excluded.

Is there any possible way I can track the events in that page without affecting my goals and using a single actual URL?

Note: I cannot stop sending PageView for that particular page as GA script is added to a global Layout file.

Solution

  • If I understand correctly you want to exclude the "physical" url for a pageview in favour of a virtual url, but still want to retain the events that are sent to this physical url.

    From the top of my head I'd say create an "advanced" filter, set field A to request url and match the value of the url you want to exclude, set Field B to "hit type" and use "pageview" (you might have to check if that's the proper name, but it should be), and choose "custom field 1" as output field. Set the value for the output to "exclude", and make sure that the checkmarks for "Field A required" and "Field B required" are both checked. Should look something like:

    enter image description here

    Then instead of using you current exclude by url filter create a filter that excludes based on the value of custom field 1:

    enter image description here

    That way you only dismiss the pageviews, but keep the event, even if the url is the same for both. Untested, so may require a bit of tweaking, but the principle is sound.

    However I don't think this is actually the way to go (it's just cool that you can do stuff like this). I think instead you should overwrite the page path field in your event tags with the path of your respective virtual pageviews. That way you don't need filters, and it makes for better reports.