For the full details on Web Stories, be sure to read our blog post with all the details on best SEO practices.
The Web Story plugin provides a place to input your Google Analytics ID, and it can automatically insert the proper tracking code for you.
Our recommendation is to set up a separate Google Analytics Profile to track Web Stories. Traffic to Web Stories is not really the same as traffic to your site. If you combine stories with your primary Analytics, you’ll see a surge of users who are virtually un-monetized. All that will do is hurt your RPM calculation, while also making everything harder to track.
To set up a separate Google Analytics profile for your web stories you can follow these easy steps:
In Google Analytics go to Admin > Property.
Click Create Property.
Name the property and then click Show Advanced Options and toggle the button on to Create a Universal Analytics property.
Enter your Web Stories URL and select the protocol (http or https; most Mediavine sites are https, but if you are not, talk to your host and check out this article) and time zone.
Select Create a Universal Analytics property only.
When you click Next Google will ask you some things about your business. Then click Create. This window will pop up:
Copy the UA number and paste it into the Web Stories settings and save!
Another way to track : UTM Codes
If you’re running Web Stories inside your own Google Analytics Profile, you can easily track your Web Stories traffic and events to see how users are progressing.
In order to track clicks over to your site, it’s a little more complex because Google does not fire an event.
In this case, setting UTM codes on your Web Story CTA actions will let you track that readers are coming in through your stories.
Using UTM codes has the side benefit of letting you actually declare the traffic source. Discover traffic shows up as direct traffic, and so can be tough to track.
By setting UTM codes on the URL you can choose to make the medium “organic,” and the source “discover.” This would make it so Discover traffic shows up as Organic Search, with Discover as the source, so you can easily track it separately from Google Search and from your other Direct traffic.
EXAMPLE: make your landing page URLs something like this:
https://www.sugardishme.com/web-stories/the-grinch-stole-christmas-cookies/?utm_source=discover&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=web_story