Track the blog and the website in one Analytics property, with shared cookies and both addresses on the referral exclusion list, so a reader's visit carries across. Better still, move the blog onto the main domain.

Two accounts for one business

The business blog started a few years ago on a hosted blogging service, or on a subdomain such as blog.yourbusiness.ca. Whoever set it up gave it its own Analytics account.

The website has another. Its referrals report lists the blog as a steady source of visits, which looks encouraging until someone asks how many enquiries began with an article.

Nobody can say, because each account sees only half of every visit that crosses between them, and neither half knows the other exists.

What each account sees

A reader finds a post through a search, reads it, and follows a link to the services page. The blog's account records a visit that ended on the post.

The website's account records a new visit, arriving as a referral from the blog. The search that started it is lost, and so is the fact that this was one person.

If the reader then sends an enquiry, the website credits the blog as a referring site, as if it belonged to someone else. The article's part in the decision never appears.

Why the visit breaks in two

Analytics recognises a returning browser by a cookie, a small file holding an ID. A cookie belongs to one domain, and separate accounts set separate cookies with separate IDs.

Arriving from another domain also starts a new visit, with that domain as its source. Your own blog is treated like any other website that links to you.

Two properties can never be joined afterwards. The fix has to be made in the tracking itself, before the visits happen.

One property for blog and site

Joining them takes a few settings, which depend on where the blog lives:

With the older Analytics code, the subdomain case needs an extra line naming the main domain on both. The filter matters because a blog post and a site page can share a path.

When the blog service will not take the code

Hosted blogging services vary in what they allow. Some accept only a tracking ID in a settings box, and some accept no tracking code at all.

Cross-domain tracking needs code on both sides, adjusting the links between them. A service that will not run that code cannot join the visit, whatever the website does.

That limit is often the strongest argument for moving the blog onto the main domain, as described below.

Seeing which enquiries began with an article

Once visits carry across, set a goal for the enquiry form's thank-you page. Every completed enquiry is then counted, along with the visit that led to it.

The landing pages report, filtered to blog posts, shows which articles began visits that ended in an enquiry. A segment of visits that included any blog page also counts articles read partway through a visit.

Neither says exactly why someone enquired. Both show, for the first time, that an article was part of the path.

A worked example

A voice teacher on the North Shore teaches singing to teenagers and adults from a studio in her home, and prepares students for exams, auditions and recitals.

Her site, with lessons, fees and an enquiry form, sits on her own domain. Her blog of practice tips and audition advice ran on a subdomain, as a separate WordPress installation with its own Analytics account.

The site's reports showed the blog as a leading referrer, and new students often mentioned an article, but neither account could connect the two.

Both now report to one property, with a shared cookie, a hostname filter and a goal on the thank-you page. The landing pages report shows which posts begin visits that end in an enquiry.

Over the winter the blog moves into the main site under a blog folder, with each old post address redirected to its new one.

Why moving the blog often helps more

One domain means one tracking setup with nothing to join. It also means one design and one menu, so a reader who finishes an article can see the services without leaving.

Search engines may treat a subdomain or a separately hosted blog as a site of its own. On the main domain, links that articles attract point at the same site as the services pages.

The move needs care: a permanent redirect from each old post address to its new one, so readers and search engines following old links arrive at the right page.

Before moving a hosted blog

Check whether the blogging service allows a redirect from each old post to a new address. Some do not, and the plan has to allow for that before any post moves.

Export the posts, images and comments, and keep the old addresses in a list. That list becomes the map for the redirects and for checking afterwards.

Leave the redirects in place for years, not months, since other sites and old bookmarks will keep pointing at the old addresses.

The counter-case

Some blogs are not meant to bring business: a personal blog, a community project or a hobby. Separate tracking suits them, and nothing needs joining.

A blog with only a handful of posts may not justify cross-domain tracking. Moving those few posts onto the main site is usually simpler.

But wherever articles are meant to lead readers towards the services, the business needs to see that path, and two accounts hide it.

Joining the blog to the site

  1. Find the tracking ID on the blog and on the site.
  2. Choose one property for both.
  3. Share the cookie, or set up cross-domain tracking.
  4. Add both addresses to the referral exclusion list.
  5. Set a goal on the enquiry thank-you page.
  6. Add the hostname to page addresses in the view.
  7. Plan the move onto the main domain.

Step four is easy to forget. Without it, even one shared property can start a new visit at the moment a reader crosses from the blog to the site.

The referral exclusion list does the same job for a shop's payment page, as covered in sales credited to the payment page.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my own blog appear as a referral?

The blog and site are tracked separately, or on different domains without shared cookies. Analytics then treats your blog like any other website linking to you.

Can two Analytics accounts be combined later?

No. Visits split between two properties cannot be joined afterwards. Track the blog and site in one property from now on, and the joined history starts then.

Why put my own domains on the referral exclusion list?

Without them, a reader crossing from the blog to the site can start a new visit credited to your own blog. With both listed, the visit continues with its original source.

Does a subdomain need cross-domain tracking?

Not with Universal Analytics set to share its cookie across the main domain. A blog on a separate domain, such as a hosted service, does need it.

How do I see enquiries that began with an article?

Set a goal on the enquiry thank-you page, then use the landing pages report filtered to blog posts, or a segment of visits that included a blog page.

Should the blog move onto the main domain?

Often, yes. One domain means one tracking setup, one menu leading to the services, and links to articles pointing at the same site. Plan a redirect for every post.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Blog and website tracked separately?

Give us access to both Analytics accounts, and we will join the tracking and set a goal for your enquiries.

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