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ManagementManaging Websites

Managing Websites

Configure and organize websites in Ghost Metrics.

Overview

Each website you track in Ghost Metrics is set up as a separate property with its own tracking code, settings, and reports. Users with admin access to a website can edit its settings; creating and deleting websites are platform-level operations handled by Ghost Metrics support.

Viewing Your Websites

To see all websites you have access to:

  1. Click All Websites in the top navigation
  2. Or click the website name dropdown at the top of any page

You’ll see a list of websites with key metrics at a glance.

Website Settings

To access settings for a specific website (requires admin access on that site):

  1. Click the gear icon (Administration)
  2. Navigate to Websites → Manage
  3. Click the edit icon on the website to configure

General Settings

Website Name

The display name shown throughout Ghost Metrics. Use something descriptive:

  • ✅ “Main Hospital Website”
  • ✅ “Cardiology Service Line”
  • ❌ “Website 1”

URLs

The primary URL of your website (e.g., https://www.yourhospital.org), plus any additional domains or subdomains it’s reachable on:

  • www.yourhospital.org
  • yourhospital.org (non-www)
  • blog.yourhospital.org (subdomain)

Listing all URLs ensures traffic is attributed to the same website (and that clicks between them aren’t counted as outlinks). A related option, “Only track visits and actions when the action URL starts with one of the above URLs”, filters out tracking requests sent from anywhere else.

Timezone

Set the timezone for your reports. All date/time data is displayed in this timezone, and days begin/end by it.

Important: Changing the timezone affects reports from that point forward only — historical data isn’t retroactively adjusted.

Currency

The currency used to display goal revenue and ecommerce amounts for this site.

Exclusion Settings

Per-site exclusions keep noise out of your data:

  • Excluded IP addresses — Your office or agency IPs, so internal traffic isn’t counted. Supports wildcards (e.g., 192.168.1.*).
  • Excluded URL parameters — Query parameters stripped from page URLs in reports: session IDs, authentication tokens, and any parameter that could carry identifying data. For healthcare sites this is a compliance lever — audit your URLs and exclude anything sensitive.
  • Excluded user agents — Filter out monitoring bots or internal tools by their user-agent string.

Platform-wide exclusion defaults (applied to every site) are managed by support.

Search Settings

Track what visitors search for on your website:

  1. Enable site search tracking
  2. Enter the query parameter your search uses (commonly q, s, or search)
  3. Optionally add category parameters if your search has categories

Example: If your search URLs look like yoursite.com/search?q=cardiology, the query parameter is q. Site search reports then appear under Behavior → Site Search.

Ecommerce Settings

Set the Ecommerce dropdown to “Ecommerce enabled” to activate ecommerce reports for sites with online payments or shopping — see the ecommerce setup guide. Most healthcare websites don’t need this.

Tracking Code

To get the tracking snippet for a website, open Tag Manager from the top menu, select the website’s container, and use the Install Code page. See Installation for detailed setup instructions.

Adding a New Website

Creating websites is a platform-level operation, so it’s handled by our team:

  1. Contact Ghost Metrics support with the website’s name, main URL, and timezone
  2. We’ll create the property (website, intranet, mobile app, or Roll-Up) and confirm
  3. Install the tracking code on the new site
  4. Verify tracking is working
  5. Configure settings, goals, and user permissions — all self-service once the site exists

Organizing Multiple Websites

For organizations with many websites, organization is key.

Naming Conventions

Use consistent, descriptive names:

By Location:

  • “Hospital - Main Campus”
  • “Hospital - East Campus”
  • “Clinic - Downtown”

By Service Line:

  • “Cardiology Services”
  • “Orthopedics Center”
  • “Primary Care Network”

Using Roll-Ups

For aggregate reporting across multiple sites — by region, service line, or the entire organization — use Roll-Up Reporting. Roll-Ups give you combined metrics without manual aggregation and are also the way to “group” sites in Ghost Metrics.

Retiring a Website

There’s no archive switch for websites — but retiring one cleanly is simple:

  1. Export any data you need long-term
  2. Remove the tracking code from the site — data collection stops, and all historical reports remain viewable
  3. If you want the property hidden or fully deleted later, contact support

Warning: Deleting a website permanently removes all its data and cannot be undone, which is why deletion goes through support with confirmation.

Website Configuration Checklist

When a new website is set up, ensure you:

  • Set a descriptive name
  • Configure the correct timezone and currency
  • Add all relevant URLs
  • Set up excluded IPs and URL parameters
  • Configure site search (if applicable)
  • Install tracking code
  • Verify tracking is working
  • Set up goals
  • Configure user permissions
  • Set up any needed funnels
  • Configure Tag Manager tags (if using)

Common Configurations

Multi-Domain Websites

If your website spans multiple domains (e.g., main site and blog on different domains):

  1. Use one Ghost Metrics website
  2. Add all domains to the URL list
  3. Use the same tracking code on all domains
  4. Ask support about cross-domain visitor linking if a single visit routinely spans domains

Staging/Development Environments

Options for handling non-production environments:

Option 1: Exclude from tracking Don’t install tracking code on staging/dev sites.

Option 2: Separate website Ask support to create a dedicated property for staging to keep data separate.

Option 3: Exclude by IP Add your team’s IPs to the site’s excluded IPs so internal staging checks don’t pollute production data.

Recommendation: Keep staging traffic out of production data entirely.

Subdomain Tracking

For websites with multiple subdomains (blog.site.com, careers.site.com):

  1. Decide if they should be one website or separate properties
  2. Same website: Use the same tracking code, add all subdomains to the URL list
  3. Separate websites: Request individual properties for each subdomain

Microsites and Landing Pages

For campaign-specific microsites:

  • Request separate websites if they have distinct purposes/audiences
  • Use the main website’s tracking if they’re just landing pages for the main site
  • Consider campaign tracking instead of separate websites

Troubleshooting

Website Not Showing Data

  • Verify tracking code is installed
  • Check that the correct container snippet is used (matches this website)
  • Clear any caching
  • See Troubleshooting

Internal Traffic Inflating Numbers

  • Add office/agency IPs to the site’s excluded IPs
  • Remember exclusions apply from that point forward

Wrong Timezone

  1. Change the timezone in settings
  2. Historical data won’t be retroactively adjusted
  3. Future data will use the new timezone

Next Steps

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