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HOME · Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Development & Programming
Google Analytics' Security Warnings
How to fix this message so customers aren't scared
The subject of security warnings with Google Analytics is one that has been frequently brought up by our readers, and was something that I ran into when I launched the last Practical eCommerce website. The issue is that occasionally someone will install Google Analytics on their site only to find that users are getting errors about "both secure and unsecure" information on the page. Whether you understand that or not, it is not conducive to making an online sale.
When installing Google Analytics, someone needs to place two small pieces of JavaScript code on each page of the site they want to track. The first downloads a library of JavaScript functions that are used, and the second contains unique information about your Google account and calls some tracking functions. The error is generated by the first script, which accesses the server "Google-analytics.com" for the JavaScript library. You will notice that this server is not secure, and is the one to blame for security warnings.
Luckily, the solution is quite simple. For the pages on your site that are secured by an SSL certificate, you need to place a different piece of code to install Google Analytics. You can get the correct piece of code for your account by logging in to your Google Analytics account, and selecting "edit" next to the website profile that you want to use. Choose to edit the URL at the top of that page, and replace the "http://" with "https://", which will tell Analytics your site is secure. Save the changes and click "account status" for that website profile to get the new JavaScript code to install on secure pages only.
Notice that the server the browser now gets the JavaScript library from is "ssl.google-analytics.com" and the secure pages no longer generate a security warning.
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Published on Monday, February 05, 2007
Comments:
Both these solutions lead to a JavaScript error for me.
Posted by: Mel
Thursday, April 05, 2007
From the Analytics support page, this is the proper solution:
change "http://www" to "https://ssl"
Posted by: Mel
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Once you have signed into google analytics go to the http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=31846&topic=7175 page
Posted by: Pete
Monday, June 04, 2007
After I changed my website url to https and got the ssl script... Do I have to change it into original form (http://) or leave it as it is?
Posted by: rod
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
I don't know if this is new, but when you add the website for Google Analytics, you can select whether your website is http:// or https://
You get the correct js code to add depending on what you select.
Posted by: Lalit Mehta
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Mel's response above worked!!!
Change the reference to the javascript include from "http://www." to "https://ssl."
Posted by: John
Friday, December 07, 2007
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55483
Posted by: Sergiy Lavryk
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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Just change the reference to the script to "//{url}" instead of "http://{url}" and youre set for both http and https pages...
Posted by: Ryan
Thursday, February 08, 2007