Cookies

Question 1

At what point is the Google Analytics _ga cookie read/written?

Answer 1

When the Google Analytics tracking code is generating a pageview

The Google Analytics tracking code, which is a snippet of JavaScript code that you place on each page of your site, includes a line of code for generating a pageview. When the page loads in the browser and the pageview code is executed, the Google Analytics _ga cookie is read and/or written.

For example, an existing _ga cookie would be read to determine if the visit is a return visit.

Note that the _ga cookie in Google Analytics Universal replaces the __utma, __utmb, __utmv, and __utmz cookies that are used in Google Analytics Classic.

Question 2

Which of the following could be a reason a visitor has deleted/blocked cookies?

Answer 2

Some cookies record browsing history or personally identifiable information, such as a login email

Question 3

Why does Google Analytics write cookies to the browser of a website visitor?

Answer 3

1. To calculate the number of unique/returning visitors
2. To track the visitor’s original source across multiple

Sites that run Google Analytics issue cookies that allow the site to uniquely, but anonymously, identify individual visitors. When a visitor returns to a site that runs Google Analytics, the site uses the cookies written during the previous visit to determine if the visitor is a return visitor or a new visitor.visits

Question 4

What is the difference between persistent and temporary cookies?

Answer 4

Persistent cookies have an expiration date

Question 5

Persistent cookies have an expiration date and remain on your

Answer 5

computer even when you close your browser or shut down. On return visits, persistent cookies can be read by the website that created them (or by scripting from a third-party domain).

Question 6

Temporary (or “session”) cookies do not have an

Answer 6

expiration date, as they are stored only for the duration of a visitor’s current browser session. As soon the visitor closes the browser, temporary cookies are destroyed.

Question 7

The single cookie that Google Analytics Universal writes

Answer 7

(_ga) has an expiration of two years, which is refreshed with each new visit and action initiated by that user (in the same browser).

Question 8

Cookies allow Google to calculate first-time and returning visitor metrics,

Answer 8

track sessions, correlate campaigns/sources with website activity, and provide a wide array of additional traffic analysis.

Question 9

Google Analytics uses cookies to uniquely but

Answer 9

anonymously identify visitors, not to store personally identifiable information such as email addresses.

Question 10

What is the difference between a first- and third-party cookie?

Answer 10

1. When first-party cookies are written, they’re associated with the domain that the visitor is viewing
2. third-party cookies are associated with a domain other than the one that the visitor is viewing

Question 11

At what point is the Google Analytics _ga cookie read/written?

Answer 11

When the Google Analytics tracking code is generating a pageview