Analytics Tracker FAQ

Modified on Tue, 22 Nov, 2022 at 3:32 PM

To use Contently's performance analytics to understand how users are engaging with your content, you will need to install a javascript tracker on your website.

Note: To install the analytics tracker and start using Contently analytics, please reach out to your Customer Success lead.

What are the website requirements for using the javascript tracker?

In order for the tracking system to function properly, your website must meet the following requirements:

Your website must be publicly accessible by a web browser—no intranets or other sites hidden behind internal firewalls.
Each story page must have a uniquely identifiable URL that does not rely on URL parameters. website.com/category/unique-story-title is valid but we cannot track website.com/story.html?id=unique-story-title. The URL can have query parameters in it as long as those parameters don't dictate the uniqueness of the story.

What information does the javascript tracker collect?

No personally identifiable information (PII) is collected except for a user's IP address, which is only used to establish their location or to exclude a client's own traffic at their discretion.

Our code collects the following information:

Make, model, and operating system of the user's computer
Screen size
Location (based on IP address)
Time zone
Referrer (e.g. how did the user arrive on the page)
User engagement with browser:
• Mouse movement
• Scroll position
• Highlighting text
• Switching tabs
User engagement with embedded video (for YouTube & Vimeo, if tagged, Wistia, & HTML5 video tag):
• Played or Paused
• Duration of video (how long is video)
• Progress (how long did they watch)
• Video title (YouTube & Wistia only)
• Was it full-screen (YouTube only)

Will the tracker impact my site performance?

No. Our tracking JS beacon loads asynchronously and should not have any impact on site load time or cause any bandwidth issues as it loads in the client's browser directly from Amazon servers.

Where on my website should I install the Javascript tracker?

The Contently Analytics tracking code is a small Javascript snippet that should be inserted on all content pages (not just a homepage or landing page) just above the closing tag (so that it loads after all page content and does not affect the user’s experience). For ease of installation, we recommend placing the code site wide, as we undertake an internal cleanup process to only present data about story pages.

Can I install the tracker on my WordPress website?

Yes. If your website is run on WordPress, we recommend placing the tracking code in the "footer.php" file, as this typically includes the closing tag and includes everything after page content. If you have a story template file and would prefer to place it only on story pages, you can do so at the end of the template file.

Can I install the tracker using Google Tag Manager?

Yes. If you use Google Tag Manager (or similar tag managers) to install third-party scripts, please create a new Tag and make sure the following fields are set accordingly:

Firing Rules: Add one rule to fire on "All Pages"
Tag Type: Custom HTML Tag
HTML: Contently will give you the tracking code; place it in the text area.
Uncheck the box next to "Support document.write"

Will the tracker also track videos on my site?

Yes. Our tracking code can track the amount of time a visitor spends watching an embedded video player. The time spent watching an embedded video will be included in the attention time for your piece of content. Contently includes support for YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, and the HTML5 video tag (note: not HTML5-based players). For YouTube and Vimeo, there are additional parameters that must be added to the end of video URLs in order for them to be tracked.

YouTube: Add ?enablejsapi=1 to the end of the YouTube iframe 'src' URL. Example:
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/M71c1UVf-VE?enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen id="player"></iframe>
Vimeo: Add ?api=1 to the end of the Vimeo iframe 'src' URL. Example:
iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/80312270?api=1" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe?