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Are Blog Posts Read via RSS Feed Readers Tracked by Google Analytics?

Matthew Wilson 1 Comment

A great question came up in class today: If someone reads your blog post through an RSS reader, will their activity be tracked by Google Analytics?

Photo by Robert Scoble

First of all, let’s be sure you understand what an RSS feed is and how it is “read” by RSS readers.

This is the icon for an RSS Feed
(design by Stephen Horlander).

An RSS feed is an XML document that contains the raw data contained in your blog posts in a structured format that can be easily read and displayed in other applications.  The default setting on Blogger blog is to allow RSS feeds, so there is nothing special you need to set up.  

You can view the RSS file for the class blog at: https://digital.uni.edu/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Note that this text file contains tags to describe the blog:

<title> The title of the blog
<description> The blog description
<link> The blog URL
<managingEditor> The editor of the blog’s content

It also includes each blog post that has been published on your blog enclosed in <item> tags. 

<title> The title of your post
<description> The body text of your post (including HTML tags and links)
<link> The URL of your blog post
<author> The author of the blog’s content 

This allows other applications (like Feedly) to download the RSS file and “re-publish” the posts.  But does Google Analytics track the user activity of viewers who are viewing the site via a Feed Reader?  The answer, according to Google, is unfortunately no.

Google’s Analytics support page states:

Tracking visits from RSS feeds
In order for Google Analytics to track data, it is necessary that the Google Analytics tracking code gets executed. Since most RSS/atom readers cannot execute JavaScript, Analytics will not count pageviews that are loaded through an RSS reader. Analytics requires that the visitor execute a JavaScript file on Google’s servers in order to track that pageview.

Since an RSS feed reader only downloads and displays the contents of the RSS file, and not the actual HTML and JavaScript code of the blog itself, Google Analytics cannot track pageviews of blog posts read in RSS feed readers.

Add a Spotify Playlist to your Blog

Matthew Wilson 5 Comments

I’ve noticed a lot of students are writing about music this semester. One of the challenges with music writing in the past has been trying to give the reader an idea of what the music sounds like without actually playing the music.

Today, however, you have other options – some of you have been embedding YouTube videos in your blog posts. That works – but can also be distracting.

Here is one way to just share songs and playlists with your blog readers using Spotify.

You can share songs on Spotify (like this awesome Thelonius Monk tune):

Or you can share entire Spotify playlists (Like this playlist of highly recommended jazz tunage):

How do you do it? Follow these steps:

  1. Download and Install Spotify. Create an account (the basic account is free – supported by ads which may interrupt your music listening).
  2. Search for music that you like and create a playlist that you want to share.
  3. Right click [PC] or control click [Mac] on the name of your playlist and select “Make Public” if it is not already checked.
  4. Right click [PC] or control click [Mac] on the name of your playlist and select “Copy Playlist Link”.
  5. If you only want to embed a single song, Right click [PC] or control click [Mac] on the name of the song and select “Copy Song Link”.
  6. Go to WordPress and create a new post. Create a “Spotify” block and paste the embed link into the block.
  7. Preview your blog post. Look OK? Great – Click “Publish”!

CAVEAT: Your reader must have Spotify installed to listen to your playlist.  

Easy, huh? So what are you waiting for? Go try it on your own blog! And for those about to rock, I salute you! 

Setting up Google Analytics to track your Blogger blog

Matthew Wilson 1 Comment

Today I saw a few Tweets by some #unidigadv students who were having trouble with their social media setup.

Trying to finish up my project setup, fun but confusing #unidigadv
— Aaron Willis (@MMA_Marketer) January 29, 2013

#unidigadv Help! Trying to set up google analytics and I have no clue what I am doing.
— Caitlin Hanken (@CaitlinHanken) January 29, 2013

To make life a little easier for you, I just bought an awesome screen recording tool called iShowU, which will allow me to give you a quick tutorial on how to create a Google Analytics account and set it up to start tracking your Blogger blog. 

Hope this helps – I recommend watching in fullscreen mode so you can read the text. Good luck and enjoy!

 

Google Plus Integrates with Blogger

Matthew Wilson Leave a comment

Google has been integrating a lot of its web services (like its photo sharing tool Picasa) into its social network, Google Plus.  Recently it added some Google Plus integration with Blogger.

The catch is that to get it, you have to connect your Blogger blog with your Google Plus profile.  Once you do that, here’s what you can do to better integrate Blogger and Google Plus:

1. You can “tag” Google Plus friends in blog posts. 
Easily tag your Google Plus friends in a Blogger post by typing a “+” symbol and then typing their name out.  For example, to tag my UNI colleague +Michael Prophet in this post, I just typed the “+” symbol and start typing his first name:

I then selected his name at the top and a link was created to his Google Plus profile.  Notice as I was typed the word “Michael” it also showed me other Michaels in my circles, as well as Michaels on Google Plus that are not in my circles (so I can link to profiles of those not in my Google Plus circles).

2. Use the Google Plus Followers Gadget
The old school “Google Friend Connect” has been retired by Google (though it still works for the time being).  A better tool for listing followers of your blog is now the Google Plus Followers Gadget.  You’ll notice this gadget installed on the right hand side of this page.

3. Notify Google Plus friends when you publish a new blog post
When you publish new blog posts, you now have the option of notifying your Google Plus friends – Blogger automatically adds any Google Plus friends you may have mentioned in your post.
Notice that it also put the name of my blog post and “search description” text in the status update.

4. Blog visitors can “+1” content
This is not a new feature, but there is also a gadget available that allows readers to “+1” a blog or blog post.  This is akin to “liking” a page on Facebook.  You’ll see a +1 button also on the right hand side nav bar on this page.

For this class, I’ve considered using a tool such as WordPress for blogs, but with the great integration with Google Analytics and AdWords, I’ve stuck with Blogger for the time being.  And though I don’t use Google Plus a whole lot, perhaps this will be a reason to start.


Adding Visuals to your Blog

Matthew Wilson Leave a comment

Looking through the class blogs, I’ve noticed that a lot of posts are text only.

If you want to give your blog some visual spice, you’re going to want to add some images.  With the ubiquity of digital cameras, the best approach is to take your own photos.  If you have some design skills, you can use Illustrator or Photoshop to create your own unique graphics.

If you are not able to take your own photos – you may want to add some good looking professional images.  However, it is important to make sure that any image published on your blog is legal.

TentBlogger John Saddington has a very informative blog post called “The Complete Guide to Using Images in your Blog Posts” that you should read in its entirety.  It covers legal issues, royalty-free images, stock photography, finding “free” images, creative commons, and recommendations on image attribution and citation.  

Like this photo taken by Marie-Lan Nguyen, which I got from the Wikimedia Commons:

Final Trophee Monal 2012 n08