Clicks from emails

[seoug_2005]

Can Google know how many clicks a website has received from emails ? What if the GA is not installed ?

[ericpratum]

"Can Google know how many clicks a website has received from emails ?" It would seem so. See attached screenshot.

"What if the GA is not installed ?" No.

j35gU.png

[ReneReinholdt]

when using google analytics you can easily trace your news mails by doing something like this: when you link from a news mail, you add a query string to the end of the URL, to look something like this:

check out our new site here

or if your referring to a specific article (in old/bad CMS's they can already contain querystrings at the end of the URL, then you just add the following.

check out our new site here

doing that you can easily track the news mail links in google analytics. Measure bounce rates exc.

since it's very onlikely that your CMS is looking for a var called newsmail this method will not effect your site and will give you an easy way to track the hits from your mails.

[RyanKent]

Google has plenty of ways of knowing what is happening whether you have GA installed or not.

• Was the click from a GMail account?

• Did the click open your Google Chrome browser?

• Did the click happen while you were using Google's WiFi service?

Google Knows a lot more then people think. At least, they have access to the data. How and where they use that data is constantly being analyzed and changed, but they have the ability to track an unbelievable amount of detail.

[ericpratum]

I guess I made an assumption and thought he was asking if he could see the info Google has on email clicks even if GA is not installed. Without that assumption, you are right.

[seoug_2005]

"Did the click open your Google Chrome browser?"

Would you please clarify this ?

[RyanKent]

Millions of people use Google Chrome as their default browser. For those that do, Google has access to the data.

[ReneReinholdt]

just re-read your question and it seems that I didn't read your question properly before asking.

So I'll try again: When ppl open an email and click the link, the only way Google can tell where they are coming form is look at the referrer. Meaning if the user comes from an email, lets say he opened it in outlook, google can't see where he comes from. It will track a visit such as this as a direct visit. if the opened from a webmail (gmail, hotmail ex.) the webmail client will be the referrer. But that could just as well have been a link he was send from a friend. Or a commercial in another newsmail from an affiliate site.

Without GA installed Google is as blind as a bat and can only track traffic to the site from google search or other google programs/products. What and how much data it tracks from chrome I don't know (haven't researched it, besides what they tell the public and what they might do are two very different things, they have been naughty boys before.)

I hope that answered your question.

[KeriMorgret]

Atul, did this answer your question, or are you needing some more help?