Secure (SSL) Google Analytics

By  on  

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:


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:


For websites that have some pages secure and others not HTTPS protected, I recommend always calling the secure version of Google Analytics' urchin.js.

Recent Features

  • By
    JavaScript Promise API

    While synchronous code is easier to follow and debug, async is generally better for performance and flexibility. Why "hold up the show" when you can trigger numerous requests at once and then handle them when each is ready?  Promises are becoming a big part of the JavaScript world...

  • By
    How I Stopped WordPress Comment Spam

    I love almost every part of being a tech blogger:  learning, preaching, bantering, researching.  The one part about blogging that I absolutely loathe:  dealing with SPAM comments.  For the past two years, my blog has registered 8,000+ SPAM comments per day.  PER DAY.  Bloating my database...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Using Dotter for Form Submissions

    One of the plugins I'm most proud of is Dotter. Dotter allows you to create the typical "Loading..." text without using animated images. I'm often asked what a sample usage of Dotter would be; form submission create the perfect situation. The following...

  • By
    MooTools CountDown Plugin

    There are numerous websites around the internet, RapidShare for example, that make you wait an allotted amount of time before presenting you with your reward. Using MooTools, I've created a CountDown plugin that allows you to easily implement a similar system. The MooTools JavaScript The CountDown class...

Discussion

  1. 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();
    
    
  2. muddy

    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.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!