Google Analytics (gtag.js) – traffic analysis¶
Google Analytics is the well-known web analytics service from Google. The product is aimed more at marketers than webmasters or technologists, supporting integration with AdWords and other e-commence features. The global site tag (gtag.js) is a JavaScript tagging framework and API that allows you to send event data to Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Marketing Platform.
Installation¶
To start using the Google Analytics integration, you must have installed
the django-analytical package and have added the analytical
application to INSTALLED_APPS
in your project
settings.py
file. See Installation and configuration for details.
Next you need to add the Google Analytics template tag to your
templates. This step is only needed if you are not using the generic
analytical.*
tags. If you are, skip to
Configuration.
The Google Analytics tracking code is inserted into templates using a
template tag. Load the google_analytics_gtag
template tag library and
insert the google_analytics_gtag
tag. Because every page that you
want to track must have the tag, it is useful to add it to your base
template. Insert the tag at the bottom of the HTML head:
{% load google_analytics_gtag %}
<html>
<head>
{% google_analytics_gtag %}
...
</head>
...
Configuration¶
Before you can use the Google Analytics integration, you must first set your website property ID. If you track multiple domains with the same code, you also need to set-up the domain. Finally, you can add custom segments for Google Analytics to track.
Setting the property ID¶
Every website you track with Google Analytics gets its own property ID,
and the google_analytics_gtag
tag will include it in the rendered
Javascript code. You can find the web property ID on the overview page
of your account. Set GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_GTAG_PROPERTY_ID
in the
project settings.py
file:
GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_GTAG_PROPERTY_ID = 'UA-XXXXXX-X'
If you do not set a property ID, the tracking code will not be rendered.
Please note that the accepted Property IDs should be one of the following formats:
- ‘UA-XXXXXX-Y’
- ‘AW-XXXXXXXXXX’
- ‘G-XXXXXXXX’
- ‘DC-XXXXXXXX’
Internal IP addresses¶
Usually you do not want to track clicks from your development or
internal IP addresses. By default, if the tags detect that the client
comes from any address in the GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_INTERNAL_IPS
setting, the tracking code is commented out. It takes the value of
ANALYTICAL_INTERNAL_IPS
by default (which in turn is
INTERNAL_IPS
by default). See Identifying authenticated users for
important information about detecting the visitor IP address.
Identifying authenticated users¶
The username of an authenticated user is passed to Google Analytics
automatically as the user_id
. See Identifying authenticated users.
According to Google Analytics conditions you should avoid
sending Personally Identifiable Information.
Using username
as user_id
might not be the best option.
To avoid that, you can change the identity
by setting google_analytics_gtag_identity
(or analytical_identity
to
affect all providers) context variable:
context = RequestContext({'google_analytics_gtag_identity': user.uuid})
return some_template.render(context)
or in the template:
{% with google_analytics_gtag_identity=request.user.uuid|default:None %}
{% analytical_head_top %}
{% endwith %}