html - Using Google Analytics without Javascript?

Question

Is it possible to use the Google Analytics code on a website which does not support javascript or any server side scripting? (For example a profile page on a website which allows to use only HTML).

I have found out that analytics code can be used without using the javascript by calling the tracking image directly and send some data with it. I also found a couple of links but they use server side code also.

Answer 1

Technically, yes, since all you need to do is request __utm.gif from Google with a reasonable query string attached. This blog post on Google Analytics without javascript or cookies gives a good overview of what the __utm.gif request looks like.

Google Analytics actually has a pretty standard php implementation, but I take it you want to do this without any dynamic language at all - just one static tracking pixel to register a count of pageviews?

There are a lot of reasons why GA is not going to work 100% (and may not work at all) without a dynamic language. Primarily, GA depends on javascript (or a server side language) to set a user's utm cookies, which keep track of info about the visitor's source, and which help associate pageviews from a single visit.

Since you may just want to track a count of hits to a single page, we may be able to do away with this, although I am not completely sure that GA will not just filter our hits automatically with some sort of junk filter.

But, all that said, if you want to try this, I'd place a 1x1 image on the page with the following source:

http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmwv=5.1.7&utms=1&utmn=1894752493&utmhn=www.lunametrics.com&utmcs=UTF-8&utmsr=1280×1024&utmsc=24-bit&utmul=en-us&utmje=1&utmfl=10.3%20r183&utmdt=Tracking%20QR%20Codes%20with%20Google%20Analytics&utmhid=1681965357&utmr=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dtracking%2Bqr%2Bcodes%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26client%3Dfirefox-a&utmp=%2Fblog%2F2011%2F08%2F18%2Ftracking-qr-codes-google-anaytics%2F&utmac=UA-296882-1&utmcc=__utma%3D230887938.1463229748.1317737798.1317737798.1317737798.1%3B%2B__utmz%3D230887938.1317737798.1.1.utmcsr%3Dgoogle%7Cutmccn%3D(organic)%7Cutmcmd%3Dorganic%7Cutmctr%3Dtracking%2520qr%2520codes%3B&utmu=DC~

You'll need to adapt the source a little bit to fit the site you are tracking - see this LunaMetrics post for reference. At the very least, you'll need to change utmhn (hostname), utmr (referrer), utmp (current URI), and utmac (your GA account number).