Virtual Page views using Google Analytics is an essential feature to track visitors within your site and to have a good idea as to where customers leave the conversion process. Virtual page views are used when traditional page views are not recorded and an alternative traking convention is required.

Virtual page views are very helpful because any kind of activity can be represented and tracked if the code is paced properly. An interaction involving playing a flash video, for example, would not normally be recorded as an action by analytics, although by setting the visitor interaction as a virtual page view, it can be accomplished.  In other words, even if a page hasn’t actually been loaded, by setting it as ‘virtual’ Google Servers receive information that a page view has just been enacted.The main argument which is called during implementing this is _trackPageview()

Again, first the standard Google Analytics Tracking code must be implemented in the source code on the main server hosting the site. So your code should look like this I will provide a sample:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var gaJsHost = ((”https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);

document.write(unescape(”%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(”UA-7799676-1″);

pageTracker._trackPageview();

</script

The main argument here is the _trackPageView method, however for each element tracked, the trackPageView() method must specify a name for each event, thus if you would like to track a step in the purchase process and state it step 1 in the purchase funnel, within the track page view parenthesis, the code will be:

pageTracker._trackPageview(”/purchase_funnel/Step1.html”);

-However remember that what is in the parenthesis varies and you must adopt a consistent naming convention in Analytics.

Also, a Download can be tracked by inserting the _trackPageView argument inside a hyperlink as follows:

<a href=http://www.example.com onClick= “javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’download/example.pdf’);”>

This code makes it possible for a download to count as a page view and thus an additional step in the conversion process.

In all, virtual page views are essential when tracking visitors through the conversion process and viewing the funnel visualization in analytics which is a great visual of when you lose customers. This can give a clear picture as to what works in the conversion process and what doesn’t.

The world’s largest search engine, Google, could discontinue operations in China due to an incident where Chinese Dissidents hacked Gmail accounts. Apparently, a series of sophisticated cyberattacks took place last week against an estimated 34 companies in the U.S. to fish out confidential software source codes.  This certainly is not the first time hackers have been identified from China as the origin for other former cyberattcks making search giant Google weary of continuing operations in the country. Victims of the attack include multinational corporations, mostly from California, and include law offices, high tech companies, and other entities. The Chinese government has been identified as possibly being involved in the infringement of Chinese human rights activists through gmail accounts hosted on the computer networks of these companies located in the United States. Despite this backlash against Google company policy and long standing privacy policy, a booming Chinese market could cost Google some 300 Billion in annual revenue if the company decided to leave. Having just entered the Chinese market in 2006, Google agreed to follow China’s filtering policies and abide by content regulations, however, this invasion of privacy policy might be the end of the line for Google.