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Now it seems that Etsy told us all the wrong web address to add to our Google Analytics accounts. On page 41 of the second bugs thread on the Etsy forums admin kutty (Etsy product manager) addresses the issue of listing addresses pointing to shop addresses:
The issue you are having is Google Analytics stores the domain name for your URLs in your profile. When you want to view one of the URLs, it appends the domain name that was stored.
The domain name is set during the setup of your Google Analytics account. When you set the domain name, set that to http://www.etsy.com, not your shop name.
...
Finally, we will update the signup page for analytics to state that the website URL you enter during signup is http://www.etsy.com, not your shop name.
Wait...what? This is completely different than every other venue that has
Are you going to send an email to let all sellers know about this who have already set it up? What hasn't there been a bugs report email to alert sellers to potential issues?
WTF?!
I don't want the stats for Etsy.com! I want the stats for MY SHOP you blubbering morons! This explanation doesn't help me...and it doesn't address the larger issues.
37 Comments:
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the shops on Etsy are not subdomains?
the address is username.etsy.com...it's a subdomain
If they need us to put the full address from the database rather than the subdomain they should say so (shopid=...)
It's not a true sub. A true sub would retain that beginning address all through your shop, you lose it on etsy as soon as you arrive and it's swamped with your user ID etc.
It's a subdom forwarder/alias
LOL FAILLLLLLL
My GA seems to be working fine? Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention to it. I just don't care about Etsy anymore, yet I find myself here looking for another fix.
-shiver-
lol
Ummm. I'm thinking that the techs there must have a degree in something, right? But it seems to me that a bunch of frickin' monkeys might get the job done a little better. Does it have to be this difficult? Really? Sheesh!
Basically in a nutshell they are a bunch of muppets.
i am completely lost now .....
So is everyone supposed to edit their domain now in GA? The setup directions were wrong, we all set it up wrong? And he thinks everyone is going to see this post buried on page 41 of a bug thread? Are they going to email or write a storque article telling people how to do this?
I cannot believe how badly they have handled this release. When you roll out a new feature, you should have more forum coverage to track bugs and answer questions, you should have daily updates by developers, you should have a dedicated spot for people to report bugs or ask questions about the new thing.
They just threw it out there on a Friday, ignored all the forum threads, provided no support, and now they are giving important updates in the middle of a long thread where like 20 people will see it!
Is this the reason my Etsy shop links are broken and I can only access my store 1 out of 10 tries? And now that I've wasted more hours on Etsy that leads to more work and more wasted hours, WTF is the point anymore?
It's all about what Etsy DOES NOT do for its sellers. Half-assed doesn't even begin to describe it.
If anyone is looking for help and info from Etsy, history speaks for itself ----- it isn't coming.
I don't know why anyone is surprised. Everytime Etsy puts something out it's never right. The treasury was beta tested and still didn't work properly for months.
I, myself, will only be using the analytics with a grain of salt. I might use it more when or, more importantly, if Etsy gets it right at some point.
Argh.
#1 - they knew about this in beta. Why did they release this without fixing?
#2 - If I spent a day, I could write a simple program that would allow me to pull the http logs into a database. Then you parse the urls for successful reads. Then you link them to shops and items. I do this for a living. It isn't TOUGH.
Jeez.
Ok, so as usual I'm so effing confused by Etsy. What do I have to type in to get information on MY shop?
Can anyone clear this up for me?
Oh wait, this came in a few pages later on the thread
stellaloella says:
The change kutty mentioned on page 41 of this thread is in reference to a much earlier post in this thread by greenchairpress on page 21. This is not related to the keyword Traffic Sources issue in any way. It's about how Google Analytics pieces together links back to your shop pages.
Changing the Website URL in your GA profile, as kutty mentioned on page 41, does NOT have an impact on data collection or your tracking code. It merely influences how GA pieces the URL back together within their reports.
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Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on? Please?
On a website that, prior to the advent of new administration, was already notorious among it's most regular users for bad communication...they get new head administrators, who are actually people who have experience in the business world, and even working on major websites...and they STILL SUCK THIS MUCH AT COMMUNICATION?
Dear Etsy...my NUMBER ONE COMPLAINT has always been your AWFUL COMMUNICATION skills. It is the throughline that addresses my disgust with your lack of customer service, my disappointment with frequently appalling admin service in the forums, and my impatience with trusting anything you guys say at this point. It is the umbrella for the fact that I am given a reason to be appalled everytime you release any news of interest to the public and I mysteriously don't receive it despite the fact that I opted into your stupid opt-in notification list. It is THE issue, do you hear me, THE ISSUE.
Fix whatever you want, but I'm still going to be nothing but disgusted with you if you can't communicate effectively with me...nevermind the fact that you attempted to implement these wonky stats (and I'm not even going to bother to address this issue with my own shop because this fix is absolutely the stupidest thing I've ever heard...it's right up there with slipping that lovely code into the Etsy mini that directs to the Etsy homepage instead of our shops...and screws people who don't know how to change it themselves). Before even knew these stats were f-ed up I was annoyed about them...because I had to find out through the grapevine, not directly from you, you freaks. JUST SEND THIS SHIT TO ALL USERS. Your opt in list doesn't work, I've signed up for that g-damn thing twice now and the updates mysteriously never arrive! I am not freaking computer illiterate, the problem is not me. That, and aside from when I am addressing you out of frustration Etsy, I am a very polite individual. You aren't!!!
There are a million things that need to be fixed on this website and guess what...if you can overhaul your sucky communication, I'll be much more likely to care enough to stick it out with you, as a partner, as a consumer, as someone who wants to see you succeed and wants to be a part of that process. I'm the kind of customer you want, if only you'll give enough of a crap to communicate with me as a valued customer and not make me guess. Right now, I want to see you fail, an ugly, embarrassing gutter-visit to-the-arts-ghetto-blemish-on-the-resume for your allegedly competent administrators. You were a trailblazer and now...ugh...it's just sad to see a pioneer reduced to this.
Maybe you don't get this...you don't have a BIG, BAD competitor right now that going to just scoop up all your business right this second (although if you don't know that many of us are already settling ourselves elsewhere, you are deluded). But if you literally implode yourselves, and go out of business...? There are a number of lovely eCommerce sites that will render you a sad, badly executed memory, and after all this time of crappy communication? None of us will give a crap. Without the love, long term, you are NOTHING. Right now, at least we still care enough to complain. STEP IT UP! This is your number one most fixable issue it would seem...and it would make a huge, huge difference.
Your communications with your clients is a reflection of the culture of your business, and in fact, it's the only one we see. Let's just say this doesn't reflect well.
Oh yeah, and FUCK yer stupid stats! Gah!
Wow. Confused doesn't even begin to explain my mental state right now. I am slowly pulling things from etsy and moving them to artfire. Smell you later etsy.
I tried to set up google analytics 4 times. I put the source date in myself 3 of those times. Still I can't get any date out.
I give up.
Etsy gives no stats. Period.
Now there's new info buried in a "bugs" thread. That doesn't surprise me.
They have my email address. Don't think they'll be emailing me though. That would make too much business sense, wouldn't it?
I really had high hopes for the new administration but have lost them completely over the past few months. They're only into the bling (not the guts) of the business, imo.
Eh? I don't think I can deal with this...
Three words come to mind:
Piss Up Brewery
and etsy's inability to combine them.
this is the straw that has broken this sellers back...color me GONE!
NOW the word is that those comments from kutty (?) are not germaine.
Who is he and can any admin post forum info? Do these people actually have stated positions, or do they float around like a buncha ?
I'm really amazed that I get better information out of Etsy Bitch than from etsy.
Did you know 'kut' means 'cunt' in Dutch.....?
Okay...but now I just wanna know how to change the code in my etsy mini to direct it to my shop! (I must have missed this one somehow)
I'm beginning to have no trust whatsoever in anything they say. There's always an important bit of info missing or corrupted.
Ugh.
But if you literally implode yourselves, and go out of business...? There are a number of lovely eCommerce sites that will render you a sad, badly executed memory
-----------------
Won't happen. Google will snap them up at a good price like they did with Amazon and youtube, the creators will make a nice little sum of money and fade back into obscurity. Meanwhile, google will properly fix the site and promote it the way it should have been done all along.
Or at least I hope so. That's what's keeping me hanging on.
I don't get it. I read that post since I've been following that thread. WTF? How is changing the address to Etsy.com going to get me my shop stats? I'm completely confused.
This is just getting more and more hilarious. They've taken a proven product and fucked it up etsy-style.
Etsy has become a caricature of itself.
Here's the nutshell version for those of you confused by the dueling Admin comments.
1) There are two distinct problems here:
a) The keywords section of GA for our Etsy shops is f*ked - we get keywords for shops other than our own.
b) If you click on one of your site pages in GA (if you want to see what that page that got 8 visitors is) it doesn't work.
2) The first problem is still uncorrected. There is nothing we can do to fix it on our end - and Etsy has been claiming that they are unable to do anything about it on their end either. Make of that what you will.
3) The second problem can be partially addressed as is by looking at your pages using "View Content by Title." This is the "fix" most of us have been using, but it doesn't actually solve the problem.
4) It turns out that the reason the second problem exists is that the URL we were told to use at first (username.etsy.com) is incorrect. That URL isn't a real URL; it is a referring URL that takes you to your actual shop URL (which is something like http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=###).
5) The solution kutty offers fixes ONLY the second problem. If you notice in (4) our shops' domain is actually www.etsy.com, not username.etsy.com - so changing the URL in GA as kutty suggests is simply a recognition of that problem.
Now, there is one thing that's still not clear to me, and that's what someone trying to get the GA number (That UA-#### thing) initially is supposed to enter - our username.etsy.com URL (which is what most of us probably did), our www.etsy.com/shop URL (which ought to work too) or simply www.etsy.com (which doesn't strike me as correct - because how would you get your own shop foregrounded in GA?).
Of course, the big, honking, elephant in the room remains Etsy's inability to foresee obvious problems and their inability to communicate in anything other than mystical symbols sprinkled randomly on forum cupcakes.
*eyeroll*
I knew the communication thing would never get better. If they would not communicate a change in the TOU about billing, what makes anyone think they will communicate with there customers now. And those customers are the ones who care enough to "complain" about it.
Just a reminder Etsy, your customers are the ones who sell on your site.
And you are losing more and more of them every day.
Frick. I am so confused. >:P
I think my GA is working, though. Like someone else said, I'll take it with a grain of salt.
After reading through all your comments, it's even more clear to me that, in addition to not giving a shit about sellers, Etsy is into it's next phase of throwing more work on sellers.
- Etsy releases new crap on Fridays and takes off for the weekend, leaving Bugs unanswered;
- Etsy has spawned a new trend in the forums for The Etsy Gurus who post unending threads about "How To Do This New Thing" generating even more seller questions;
- Etsy then writes dorkies about how wonderful all these Gurus are---and why not? They're working for free!!!
Etsy does 5% work, and self-appointed "Etsy Experts" spend hours promoting whatever Etsy does. For free.
How's that for letting sellers do all the work, all their own (and costly) marketing and advertising, and then spend hours trying to figure and work around untested tweaks.
On a site with one quarter million stores, how many times can you miss the target? Oh, I forgot, that's what the forums are for -- guessing and more questions minus clear definitive answers (or any answers at all).
"Etsy Virtual Lab/Meeting on Google Anayltics"
Would this be considered an oxymoron?
Rana said: "Now, there is one thing that's still not clear to me, and that's what someone trying to get the GA number (That UA-#### thing) initially is supposed to enter - our username.etsy.com URL (which is what most of us probably did), our www.etsy.com/shop URL (which ought to work too) or simply www.etsy.com (which doesn't strike me as correct - because how would you get your own shop foregrounded in GA?)."
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There is a place for user name, enter your shops URL there, and in the space for Website URL you enter the Etsy URL. When you plug the UA number into your shop on the "web analytics" page that is how it is tracked, not that entering the new URL really changes anything other than being able to click on those links to the content on your page.
I imagine Etsy is not going to give us the ability to see where we are getting the hits from within the website. I don't believe it is a glitch I believe it is something that Etsy had the option to give us, and in fact probably had to have it disabled before the roll out or we would have it. I use GA on my website and it tracks the traffic from the page before entering the website all the way to checkout and payment. That is why I think the strange keywords and unrelated referring sites are showing up. Because there is a big piece to the puzzle that is just missing. I have several referring sites which would make perfect sense if there was any mention of my shop or any connection to my shop, there are a few which do have direct links, but for the most part the information about how someone got from a blog about collage or altered art pendants, happened to just randomly pop into my Etsy shop is missing. I did check, and most of those blogs do have links to Etsy but once they got to Etsy they would have had to search for collage sheets or something in my tags titles or descriptions to get to my shop.Unless they just entered my URL into the address bar or had a bookmark for my shop and clicked on it from that page, two highly unlikely scenarios and that would be considered direct traffic.
This missing information would help us to tag correctly according to how we are found within Etsy, and with relevance to the actual search engines (google etc.). The search would become a little more organized if at least some of the sellers could see/use the results within the site related to tagging (titles and descriptions also).
The problem with that would be that the RANDOM! FRANTIC! INCESSANT! renewing and relisting that Etsy depends on to butter their proverbial bread may be impacted negatively *sniff*!
And there has been mention of other negative impacts it would have on Etsy's bottom line~ $$$$$$$
I don't begrudge them the money making thing, if they could just be honest about it, and stop trying to pass themselves off as philanthropists doing us starving artists a favor!
Big Business has been selling sugar coated breakfast cereal as part of a balanced breakfast to people for years, who do they target to get the sales? Kids! Why? because Kids (newbies) don't have the experience to filter the B_S_ in the hard sell. ~~Why is the influx of new sellers always wide eyed and eager to fork over the seemingly "cheap" listing fees endlessly like putting nickles in a slot machine? The sugar coating! Why does Etsy not listen to the invaluable opinions and suggestions of seasoned Etsians? We're not the focus, unless we're shiny enough and have such a great need for approval and ego stroking, from outside sources that the sugar coating covers the flavorless puffed rice. And we've figured out ways to get the traffic to our shops without going into debt renewing.... I think I'm done.
Charlotte
alert! No real update, and more koolaid drinkers in the latest admin post.
Well Stella just posted another message about GA. Basically apologizing for releasing GA to us before it was fixed, that they understand that GA will not be a long term solution and that we need internal search information as well and they are working on that. Blah, blah, blah.
What they tells me is I was right to be cynical. GA is the 'free version'. They will eventually roll out a stats system that will track internally but you'll have to pay for it.
It's a shame that they haven't learned that a company makes more money by keeping already established customers, than they do courting new ones.
Can they please stop making Stella make these announcements? It's just mean. Quit sticking a bullseye out there on the poor girl's head for everyone to jump on. I want bigger cheeses accepting accountability for this crap.
Etsy admits they made a boner
but doesn't really give any solid promises to fix it, despite having the fix handed to them on a platter. (infivision linked to the GA help page which explains how to fix it)
"We are still reviewing what options are best for our seller community, and we are testing possible solutions. ... We ask for your patience while we work through a few ideas and consult with Google and others to understand what’s possible."
But still, it's something. At least they finally addressed the problem, (and admitted it was THEIR problem, a refreshing change) a week after it was released and a week of ignoring the members.
This kind of statement would have been really good to make on Monday.
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