Readers of this blog may recall a post back in December about the extra code that Etsy places in links to your shop and your items that indicates where the link was found on the site. It seems this is in place for Etsy to track their internal traffic, but with the new integration of Google Analytics, you can use it to track internal Etsy traffic to your site. Here's how:
Each URL link to an item on Etsy has a little extra piece of referral code inserted that indicates where within Etsy the link appears. For instance, links that appear on search result pages have an sr in the URL, as in:
etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_1&listing_id=XXXXX
The term "list" in this URL means that the link was viewed in list mode (it might also say "gallery" if the link appears in gallery mode.) The number is the position on the page where the link appears. In this case, it's a "1" for the first, or top position.
These referral links show up in your Google Analytics reports in the "content" section. If you saw the link above, for instance, you would know that someone had found your item #XXXXX while searching in list mode, and that your item had appeared at the top of the page. Other codes indicate whether your visitor found your item from the front page, a showcase, a gift guide, the Storque, or through browsing categories. I have compiled a list of the various codes I have discovered in a Google doc for reference. These may change from time to time, and there may be other tracking referral codes I haven't found yet, so please let me know if it needs to be updated!
Updated 11/22/2009! Etsy Traffic Sources
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12 comments:
Thanks, this will be interesting to explore
Thank you, this will be very helpful!
An other great post!
I love this blog, it is so concise and clear!
Thank you very much for sharing this information. I didn't even know to look in the "content" section for that.
Thanks - I hope it's useful. Be sure to get the new PDF today if you haven't updated it. I discovered some new codes since the first edition - vt_other is the code when people browse through your site using the other items pictures on the right side. vt_related is the code when someone looks at one of your sold items and clicks on one of the three related items at the top.
Thanks so much! This will be valuable to us until Etsy freely gives them up! You clever thing!
Thank-you for the post!
This is very helpful
I think that the ref code "em" is also used when someone clicks through on an etsy Mini on an external page. Thanks for compiling this list! Found a few things I hadn't figured out yet.
Very helpful, thank you
Wow! I am just now getting to this and it's mid march...thank you for your insightful information.
This is really nifty! Thanks! :D
I see this sometimes af_ I think it might be the activity feed?
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