Using counting-pixel technology, WiredMinds makes Web analytics and the analysis of your Website visitors a much more reliable and interactive process than would be possible with logfile-analysis. One illustration of this is the ease with which recurring visitors can be tracked. These recurring visitors are identified through either the use of cookies or a combination of IP address and browser ID.
Use of cookies to track visitors results in more consistent, accurate results because:
| · | It is sometimes the case that multiple visitors have the same IP address, for example, when they are guarded by a firewall of their company´s network. In this case, identification of customers by IP address is not always possible. Therefore cookies here are the best option. |
| · | In some scenarios, a number of visitors share the same browser IDs because all are using exactly the same browser type. Again, in these cases cookies are the perfect way to discern between visitors. |
| · | As users become increasingly security and virus conscious and Website visitors’ browser security setting are ever more tempered towards locking out malicious programs and Websites so-called “third-party” cookies are no longer a reliable way of keeping track of customers’ activities. However, first-party cookies are currently accepted by the pre-configured settings of all widely-available browsers and are a great way to analyse customer behaviour where IP and browser ID cannot. |
WiredMinds supports first-party and third-party cookies
At present, there are two types of cookies in widespread use on the internet: “third-party cookies” which, as the name suggests, are not sent by the Website that the visitor is using, but from a "third" party – in the case of WiredMinds, our counting-server. Monitoring of third-party cookies takes place automatically every time the counting-pixel is rendered on a visitor’s browser. In contrast, first-party cookies are sent directly from the domain on which the visited Website resides. WiredMinds supports both third-party and first-party cookies.
Third-party cookies are generally accepted by default in most browsers but can be deactivated by the user independently by making basic changes to the browser’s security settings.
First-party cookies can also be disabled by the user, but this has to be specifically configured within the browser settings and this very rarely occurs. Where content is delivered in encrypted form (secured with an SSL certificate associate with the Website’s domain) first-party cookies are the only cookies that can be accepted by the visitor unless minimum security settings are selected on the visitor’s browser – clearly this is not usually the case. Therefore, in situations where SSL and https are in consistent use across a Website a WiredMinds Enterprise dedicated or managed server solution can continue to provide excellent first-party cookie tracking, since the solution can be installed within your Website’s domain, with, say, a url such as https://tracking.yourdomain.com. For more information on this subject please feel free to contact us and we can explain in greater detail.
