Alternate Domain Names

The list of Alternate Domain Names is fundamentally important to the way ClickTracks determines the visitor session. In general the correct behavior is for ClickTracks to start a new session (and therefore count a new visitor) whenever the referrer is coming from an external website. Using the example of visitors coming from Google, it's certainly correct that each time someone clicks from Google to the target site a new session should be started, otherwise those clicks will not match the PPC campaign clicks.

ClickTracks Professional : domains and alternate domains are configured within the ClickTracks Pro Server.

A problem arises where the site is known by several different domain names, for example both www.bobsfruitsite.com and www.bobsfruitsite.co.uk. The second domain must be listed as an alternate because otherwise every page clicked in www.bobsfruitsite.co.uk will result in a new session and additional visitor session. The New Dataset Wizard attempts to find cases like this based on examining the IP and DNS entries for the website.

A related problem is having pages on an external site, for example newsletter signup. ClickTracks Analyzer cannot track users across these different domains (only Professional can do this) however it is possible to use a goal page that lives back on the main site, and the visitor would see this page after completing the process on the external server. In this case also the external domain should be listed as an alternate.

RULE:

•	Alternate domains should include any domain that is inside the website as your visitors perceive it. Visitors coming from any domain not listed will by default be coming from outside and count as an additional new visit.

•	Separate domains in the list with ;

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