How can I track my RSS generated traffic? (posted: 8/8/2008)

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Urchin provides an easy way to track and quantify your RSS generated site traffic. Using Urchin's campaign tracking capabilities (standard in Urchin on Demand and available with the campaign Tracking Module for Urchin 5) you can actual measure not only how much traffic an RSS feed is driving to your site but also the ROI for that traffic.

Google Analytics' campaign tracking is based on link tagging. You embed a piece of information in the link that drives traffic to your site. When the user arrives on your site, Google, using the UTM, decodes the embedded campaign information and tags the user. The great thing about the campaign tracking functionality is that it does not care where the link is. It could be a banner ad, a CPC ad or, in our case, an RSS link. As long as you can add the campaign information to the link you can track the source of your traffic.

The simplest way to track your RSS generated traffic is using the utm_medium tag. This tag sets the medium in which the link is displayed. In Google Analytics terminology, "medium" is the mechanism that delivers the advertising to the end user. Some examples of "medium" are email newsletters, paid keywords, organic searches and RSS sources.

Here's how to add the utm_medium tag to your RSS links:
Original URL Modified URL
www.foo.com www.foo.com/?utm_medium=RSS

When someone arrives on your site with "utm_medium=RSS" in the URL Google will know that an RSS feed delivered the user to your site.

To see a summary of your RSS traffic, look at the Marketing Optimization > Marketing Campaign Results > Medium Conversion report. This report compares mediums with respect to number of visits, pageviews per visit, conversion rates, and average visit value. You should see a "RSS" listing in the "Medium/Source" column of the report.

You can also segment your report results by the "medium". To do this click the red arrow at the left hand side of each entry in a report. Then click on "Cross Segment Performance" from the menu. Finally, choose "Medium" from the sub-menu.

Understanding where your site traffic comes from is vital to your site's success. Using the campaign tracking functionality you can measure the mechanisms, including RSS feeds, that drive traffic to your site and make informed decisions about your changes.