Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Is it possible to use Google Tag Manager to pass a user’s text input into a form field to Google analytics?
-
Hey Everyone,
I finally figured out how to use auto event tracking with Google Tag Manager, but didn't get the data I wanted. I want to see what users are typing into the search field on my site (the URL structure of my site isn't set up properly to use GA's built-in site search tracking). So, I set up the form submit event tracking in Google Tag Manager and used the following as my event tracking parameters:
Category: Search
Action: Search Value
When I test and look in Google Analytics I just see: "search" and "search value." I wanted to see the text that I searched on my site. Not just the Action and Category of the event....
Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Do I need to set up a different event tracking parameter?
Thanks everyone!
-
Hey Mike,
Thanks so much for the reply. I apologize for taking so long to respond! I have my Moz emails separated into a different email folder that I rarely check. We ended up abandoning GTM and coming up with a developer supplied solution, but I'd still love to try this out. We'd love to be able to do all of the event tracking without involving developers! I will try this out within the next few weeks on a new site and definitely respond back.
Thanks Mike.
-
Hi Melanie,
Definitely possible using GTM's Data Layer object, but it'll take a little work to make it happen.
Two resources I'd recommend a deep dive into to understand this logic:
- Google's Tag Manager Developer's Guide explains how to work with the data layer - I'd consider this mandatory reading as there are a few basic setup steps for utilizing the data layer object
- This great tutorial video from Eric Fettman at KISSmetrics (which I'm borrowing a bit from below) is a great, clear walkthrough - the whole video is solid, but if you're looking to jump right to the bit that applies to this case, go to 9:20
The following is my basic stab at what you'll need to do, but you should by no means consider this foolproof - testing and adjustment will be required.
You'll basically want to...
-
Use the dataLayer object in your form HTML to push an event with the search field value into the data layer upon the form's submission
For example: < form name="myform" onsubmit="dataLayer.push({event','search','eventLabel':[searchvalue]});" /> where search is the name of your new custom event, which you'll listen for with a new GTM event tag & rule combo (following steps), and you must replace [searchvalue] with the value of your search form field via JS or jQuery - that last bit is a little tricky and will probably require a separate function to parse the DOM and grab the value from the search field, but I'd look at the same basic functionality that JavaScript Form Validation uses as a starting point. Maybe someone with stronger JS skills than mine can help you sort that piece.
-
Create a new event tag in GTM with custom Category and Action static values (maybe "search" and "search performed"), adding a Macro with the type "Data Layer Variable," with a Data Layer Variable Name of eventLabel (which is what we used in the HTML code above - crucial that these match) and Data Layer Version set to 1
-
Create a rule for this new tag to fire when the Condition {{event}} equals search (or whatever you've specified as the event name in your form HTML above
It can be a little confusing wrapping your head around this combination of pushing a custom event along with a dynamic event label into the data layer and using that to trigger a rule+event combo to grab that data and push it with your custom event values into GA, but when you think through the logic a few times it becomes clearer.
I'd love to hear whether this did the trick or at least led you down the right track if you don't mind circling back in this thread.
Best,
Mike
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Strange landing page in Google Analytics
Hello MOZ Community, The website in question is https://x-y.com/ When i looked at the landing pages report in GA , x-y.com is appended at the end of every URL like this. https://x-y.com/x-y.com When i open the above URL in GA interface, it shows page not found. This is obvious as there is no such URL.
Reporting & Analytics | | Johnroger
The metrics like sessions, Users, Bounce rate all look good. In the property settings, The default URL is written like this http:// cell-gate.com (Please note that s is missing in property settings). But how is traffic tracked correctly How do i solve this problem. What settings should we change to make the landing pages report look ok Thanks0 -
How to change domains in Google Analytics without losing the data
Hi there, We recently changed our domain from .COM to .NET so that all our subdomains from external pages matched. Right now in Google Console we have our new .NET website being tracked, but in GA we are still tracking .COM. It is also causing issues with MOZ crawling our site because of the .COM/.NET discrepancy. My question is what is the best way to change our Google Analytics from .COM to .NET without losing historical data and what considerations do we need to change before implementing this? Our team was concerned that just downloading the old data would be too vast and it we wouldn't be able to continue manipulating it dynamically in GA. Thanks!!
Reporting & Analytics | | cPanel-LLC.0 -
Redirecting one domain to another using utm tags
I have two live websites, which have both been live for over 10 years, so we have plenty of backlinks to both...domain1.com & domain2.com. Domain 1 and all urls is being merged into domain2.com. So 301 redirects will be setup for every page of the site....domain1.com/abc-1234/ to > domain2.com/abc-1234/ In Google analytics for domain2.com we want to be able to see which visits we have received as a result of a redirect from domain1.com. It is possible to see these visits that come in via organic, referrals and social etc, as those will come to us with the referral as domain1.com. However, with direct traffic, i.e. if someone types domain1.com into their search bar, these visits will be assigned as direct and we are not able to tell in GA if those users have typed in domain2.com, or domain1.com to get to our webpage. There are some suggestions in forums of adding utm_source tracking to all redirects (and add canonicals to those urls pointing to the non utm_source version), but my concern is that Google is going to have to go through one extra step to reach the page on the redirected domain. So without the utm source code Google will follow this route
Reporting & Analytics | | Sayers
domain1.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/ With the utm source code Google will follow this route
domain.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/?utm_source... then see's canonical, so moves to domain2.com/123/ So essentially I am giving Google one extra step to follow before it gets to the equivalent page on the new site. Is this an issue, and/or are there any other ways to track this redirection without adding extra parameters to the url?0 -
% Change - Google analytics - how to calculate?
Hi All,
Reporting & Analytics | | JohnPalmer
I have two dates with two different numbers I want to calculate the "% Change" like google analytics, The numbers of June 2015 - 127,931 sessions
The numbers of June 2014 - 90914 sessions please tell me what is the %Change. Best. J0 -
How does switching to HTTPS effect Google Analytics?
We are looking at making our site HTTPS. We have been using the same Google Analytics account for years and I like having the historical data. All of our pages will be the same, we are just going to redirect from the http to https. Does anything need to be done with Google Analytics? What about other addons such as Optimizely, Crazy Egg, or Share this?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
Why is Google Analytics showing index.php after every page URL?
Hi, My client's site has GA tracking code gathering correct data on the site, but the pages are listed in GA as having /index.php at the end of every URL, although this does not appear when you visit the site pages. Even if there is a redirect happening for site visitors, shouldn't GA be showing the pages as their redirect destination, i.e. the URL that visitors actually see? Could this discrepancy be adversely affecting my search performance? Example page: http://freshstarttax.com/innocent-spouse/ shows up in GA as http://freshstarttax.com/innocent-spouse/index.php thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | JMagary0 -
Weird info from google analytics?
Hi Could anyone explain what these visits are in Google Analytics? Under traffic sources and organic I am seeing lots of entries with data like below. Any ideas what kind of traffic this is? Is it a bot and if so what is their purpose of it and is it recommended that you block it? Pages/Visit 1.00 Avg. Time on Site 00:00:00 % New Visits : 100% Bounce Rate: 100.00% Many Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | ocelot0 -
Setting up Google Analytics default URL
If someone has set: the default url in Google Analytics to a non-www address (http://mysite.com) then placed the UA tracking script from that GA account within the CMS framework of the website... ... and then set the permanent 301 redirect in the htaccess file to redirect to the www address (http://www.mysite.com). How less accurrate will my GA analytics measurements be considering the default url within GA is non-www and the permanent 301 redirect in htacess is to the www-address? Anyone know how reliable GA reports are until the default url in GA analytics is changed to match what is the redirected url in htaccess file? _Cindy
Reporting & Analytics | | CeCeBar0