To get the best results out of Google Analytics, you need to ensure it’s installed on each page of a website. To automatically check for you, I’ve created a Firefox extension to do all the work.
GA? will put a little icon in the status bar of your Firefox web browser. It will then check each page you load to to see if it has Google Analytics installed. If so, it’ll show a colored bar chart. If Google Analytics doesn’t appear to be installed, it’ll show a gray bar chart.
This is a handy little tool if you have a smaller website, if want to do a spot check on a handful of pages or if you want to ensure that certain pages are being tracked.
Works with Firefox 1.5, 2 & 3.
Known Issues:
1. It doesn’t currently re-check for each tab or window you cycle through. It only checks the page that completed loading last. Updates are planned for it to refresh per window or tab focus. : Version 0.5 updates on tab change.
2. It doesn’t detect Google Analytics code put in the head of the document. It only searches the body of each page. Working in version 1.0.
Try it out and let me know what you think.
GA? can be downloaded at Mozilla’s Addon site.
Developed and tested on a Mac running Firefox 2.x & 3. Works well on Windows too. Unsure of how well it work in Firefox versions less than 2.x.
Posted Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
Categories: Firefox, General, SEO, Software, Web Design
Tags: extension, google, Google Analytics
[...] you’ve tried out GA? or Google Personalized Search Switch, please take a moment to either add a comment over at the [...]
This is a fantastic invention – I work for an SEO company and I often have to check through entire sites to make sure that Analytics is on all of the pages. Great stuff.
Thanks Jono. A new version should be out next week that will check on tab change so it stays up to date.
Any reason your extension does not show GA installed on my site? GA is installed on most pages, including the home page, yet your tool shows GA not installed (grey).
I’ve written a SEO tool that detects the “urchinTracker();” string and finds GA everytime. What is your indicator as to if GA is installed?
http://asbdc.ualr.edu/ecommerce/internet-marketing-tool.asp
Excellent question and I think I have an answer. The extension looks for Google Analytics code in the body of the page. Since that’s where Google says to put it, that’s where I’m looking.
Your site has the Google Analytics code in the head of the document, not the body. That’s why my extension doesn’t see it. I’ll have to do more research to see if I can look in all HTML.
Thanks for pointing that out.
[...] new version of GA? has been released. The Google Analytics detector now re-checks each page as you switch between tabs [...]
Your Add-on is great, but would it be possible to set a parameter to be able to define what code will be looked for in the html source of the page? If this is possible, we could have an open generic add-on which could be used in a lot of case (for example: webtrends, xiti, personalized coding for google analytics…).
I agree, that’d be a nice idea Marius. I’ll keep it in mind.
Just to let you know. GA has just launched a new script for tracking websites. Your Extension does not work with the new version. The old version was “urchin.js” and now the new is “ga.js”. You can check the code on my website at http://www.chris-aranha.co.uk
thanks
[...] Analytics recently updated their tracking code. In doing so, my GA? Firefox extension didn’t recognize the newer code. However, with a few new lines of code, the GA? Firefox [...]
[...] Google Analytics Checker – I just downloaded this today but like the quick reference to see if Google Analytics is installed [...]
Hi Thomas
I wrote you in December 2007, that your add-on was great. I need your add-on, but with more options. I wanted to send you my request with the contact form but it hasn’t work.
Could we buy your code for internal use in our company OR will you change your add-on and create one for us in order to check other tags in the page? I’m sure my requests are not difficult for you and will help us to check the qualtiy on our web pages
If you are interested, you can reach me with my mail.
Thanks.
Marius
nice plugin. It’s really helpfull. Thanks
Marius – What else are you looking for? Feel free to email me at twistermc / gmail.com. And my contact form should be working.
[...] is installed on a web page and displays the result in your status bar. For more details see the GA? – Is Google Analytics Installed [...]
[...] There are a couple of other tools that can help. If you use Firefox, you can use the plugin WASP or GA? [...]
[...] GA? – Very simple plugin for Firefox [...]
Dia is mhuire Dhuit Twister Mc,
I was amused and amazed at your “cupla focail”.
I’m no great Gaelgoir myself, but well done !!
Now, about that colourful invention of yours ; product of your fertile brain….. you know the one that tells you if your google analytics is properly installed or installed at all.
I have downloaded it but it seems to be completely ignoring me…… not a bar chart in sight, neither the coloured version or the grey.
Is the continuous rain and the damp grey mist of Ireland too much for it?? Yes it is sitting there on the add-ons, happy in the company of its extension pals…… but will it get to work ?? not a budge out of it. Please take a look at it and tell it to get the finger out… get cracking… stop being a slouch..
Go raibh mile maith agat
Noreen
Thanks checking it out now!
[...] hoohumm. There are a number of ways you could do this, download the entire site, get some software that searches for a particular string (or if you use UNIX use the grep command or something similar or program some perl). I did google check if all pages include google analytics – Google Search and I came up with Check Google Analytics Code With SiteScan | SEO Hong Kong | HK Search Marketing and Optimization Blog firefox extension : Is Google Analytics Installed? – GA? Firefox Extension | Blog on a Stick [...]
Great tip to see if our competitors websites have analytics installed, quickly.
This is a excellent pluggin that will help us know if a website has Analytics installed on their websites.
Would it be possible to make the icon moveable to any toolbar?
DaveG – That could be coded in, however I don’t see it as a big priority right now.
I put the two code snippets (new trancking code) provided by Google into two separate js files instead of printing them right into HTML and Analytics still get the data, but the extention does not detect GA as installed on my pages.
@Reinis – Since the JavaScript is linking the code into the files, the code does not show up in the page source code. This type of include will not work with the extension as it doesn’t look in other files.
With my comment I wanted to point put, that GA actually is installed, and in this case the extension does not work as it states it would. And maybe in future versions a fix to this case could be included.
Anyway, thanks for the good and useful work!
Great plugin Thomas, do you have one that works for Yahoo Analytics?
@Chris – If you show me 5 sites with Yahoo Analytics, I can see what I can do.
@Reinis – Sorry I can’t detect in other files. Only the source of the page you are currently on. If it’s not in that code, I’m unable to see it.
Hi Thomas, congrats for a great idea!
I manage some sites where the detection fails:
http://rcache.sf.net/
http://addressing.sf.net/
http://fura.sf.net/
I guess the problem has to do with the fact that I put the initData/trackPageview calls in the document “onload” event. I do this because it speeds up page loading, so I guess I am not the only one out there. Is there any possibility to fix it?
Cheers
@ Nodens2k The extension looks for two different variables that are present in the new and old Google Analytics code. The code you are providing has neither. I’m not sure how you have yours setup so I’m unable to detect it. Did you set yours up according to Google instructions?
Hi again Thomas,
Ok, so the problem is that I use “url” as the variable name for “gaJsHost”, isn’t it?
I can fix this in my pages.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks Thomas, nice add-on. I would only suggest to make the “off” icon a bit more transparent, so it’ll easier to see if the page has tracking code installed or not. Also would be cool if the plugin can detect the version of the code (ga.js or urchin.js).
Just wanted to mention that Google has a new Analytics script in beta now (asynchronous tracking) that is not detectable by the current version of the GA? add-on. Information on the script and code is located here:
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/asyncTracking.html
Thanks. I’ll have to look into it and make updates.
Hi Thomas,
Thank you very much for your great work.
I’m wondering if it is a good idea/option for GA? that GA? let me know if a tracking code is missiing on my site.
After setting on what site to inspect, GA? alerts me the code is not installed on the current page I browse. It helps us to get more accurate data.
I hope you like my idea.
Thanks in advance,
Hello,
I have just tried the new asynchronous analytics tracking code and it seems not to be detected by the extension.