Secure (SSL) Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a tremendous tool, especially when your customer wants an eCommerce website. Analytics is even more powerful when your customer uses Adwords to drive in traffic.
Google provides the following code for you to add to your page footer so that Analytics can grab statistics:
%MINIFYHTMLe903e0d5057cb2eded1444f2e11df3774%%MINIFYHTMLe903e0d5057cb2eded1444f2e11df3775%
The problem with this is that if you're pulling this code in on a secure page, a security warning will pop up mentioning that the page is loading both secure and non-secure items. How do you prevent this issue (as well as trust issues with the user)? Simply import the secure version of Google Analytics:
%MINIFYHTMLe903e0d5057cb2eded1444f2e11df3776%%MINIFYHTMLe903e0d5057cb2eded1444f2e11df3777%
For websites that have some pages secure and others not HTTPS protected, I recommend always calling the secure version of Google Analytics' urchin.js.
Discussion
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Nice post! Google Analytics has a new tracking code option, ga.js instead of the urchin.js, that handles the ssl component. Here’s a look:
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxxx-x");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
The answer to my ssl headaches! Didn’t think to check if Google Analytics offered a secure tracking code. Will be so happy to say goodbye to that annoying “non-secure” pop-up.
Thank ya thank ya thank ya.