How to effectively handle adwords and analytics when your idx is a subdomain.

[tommytx]

I have been helping someone out with an idx that runs on a general subdomain and its terrorizing anything we try to do regarding adwords tracking and analytics tracking...
I hope someone has ideas for a work a round.. as I know thousands of folks use this idx.. cause its less expensive. I have asked the Idx providers for ideas but none have worked for me..
Does anyone have ideas on solutions?
1. The domain is idxco.com and they have a ton of folks using this idx and they are all like:
mydomain.idxco.com
bobby.idxco.com
susie.idxco.com
homesforsale.idxco.com
The problem is that most of the activity occurs on the idxco.com and therefore i cannot track analytics... and most adwords activity occurs there also so its not easily trackable.
I posting here in the hope that others have experienced this problem and have some thoughts.
For example you can't even track the conversion page as when they fill out a form they are on the subdomain like homes.idxco.com/myform.php so this will not tick the conversion box on my analytics since I don't own that subdomain.
They do have a box to insert your adwords conversion code.. but I cannot see how it could work effectively since you cannot link the adwords to the analytics and with out the linking.. you are total in the blind.... and your adwords tweeking will at best be horrible.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
I have already suggested that he switch to REW... so you don't have this dumb subdomain problem... however on a low budget REW might not be the best idea.. even though REW is great... its a little expensive for my friend at this point.

[BenGanje]

Tommy,

Can't you get script for each of those sub domains from adwords to separately monitor analytics?

[tommytx]

As far as I know there is only one script that adwords provides for conversion. The script needs to be placed on the conversion page (actually the page they go to following conversion) and that page is on the subdomain. So as far as I know if you actually own the domain with all the subs then analytics can track the subs... but if you cannot register the main domain idxco.com(since you do not own it ... and you don't) then subdomain tracking will not result and obvioulsly I cannot place analytics on the domain since thousands of other customers will be using it and i have no access to it anyway... I will keep experimenting and looking for a solution... but it looks hopeless right now. Not sure if I am explaining this so that anyone can understand it...
If anyone wants to look at an example to provide thoughts simply search site:idxco.com in google and you will see thousands of these sites and they all work the same way... each site shares the main domain as a subdomain... and each person owns their subdomain and has no access to the actual domain. I am sure many of the folks are trying to run adwords and they may have no idea how badly their hands are tied.. meaning that many who run adwords do not understand how adwords truly works so they may be just advertising adwords and letting it go with no management what so ever, and in many cases not even realizing they are totally running in the dark. Sorta like if you never had candy... then you would not miss or even know about it, so you don't miss it. Maybe I will signup for adspy or one of those thingys used to track adwords users.... and see how many folks using this doman idxco.com are actually doing adwords and then contact them to see if they know how badly they are screwing themselves due to the inability to do the super link with analytics and adwords to do the necessary tracking without their hands tied behind thier backs...

[sffisher]

I have the same exact problem. Not a huge issue for me as I do all of the website use and marketing myself. But, if I were hired out to do it, I would be worried about my actual numbers as well. I don't worry about it too much as of now.

[tommytx]

When using a subdomain IDX or IDX framing... not only do you lose the ability to track adwords, analyitcs, marry adwords with analytics for super PPC management you also lose the 10,000 pages that you indexed in google and yahoo and then decide to leave that idx and get another one.

If the subdomain was not involved, its simple to move on to another provider then use htaccess to forward all your old ten thousand indexed pages to your new site.. someone might say.. yes true the indexed pages are pointing to your domain, but when you move on from the old idx you no longer have those pages for the indexed pages to land on.... WRONG... all you do is set up htaccess to forward all the old pages to a php file and the new php can read the url and send them to a very similar page on your new idx... for example... lets say the old url is mysite.com/Tacoma-Towhouse-For-Sale.html. The htaccess forwards all 10,000 old pages indexed in google to the special php file on your new site... Then in a text file you write Tacoma-Townhouse-For-Sale.html = newidxlocation/Townhouse-For-Sale.html which brings them to the very same material on the new site and the best thing is google cannot detect that you have forwarded them.. Matter of fact google has no idea that its not the very same page or address.... and when google visits they simply re-index the slight difference in the page... since of course the content probably will not be exactly the same as the original indexed page...
There is more than one way to skin a cat..

And the nice thing about REW and other providers that do not use the subdomain thingy.. you still have control over all your idx'd pages if you decide to move on.

But don't forget if you do move on... you must do some special handling as described with the htaccess and php so that the pages do not go 404 when the exact same page is not found on your new site.....

But of course once you fall in love with the REW IDX you will never move on anyway... so no need to worry about all the gibberish above... but just in case you ever do.. hee..hee..

Someone said "What the hell are you talking about 'lose the 10,000 indexed pages"? I never had ten k indexed.... then you never had a good IDX running for a year, as google will crawl around and find every last home for sale in your mls.. given enought time... generally speaking if you do a site:mydomain.com on a good idx site.. you will note that google has found and indexed somwhere between 10 and 100 new pages every single day. If you don't find this to be true, you might need to look for a better idx.....

[tommytx]

ssfisher,
Hey I looked at your site and see that you have the exact same problem that we have... A subdomain site same provider as mine... Just to let you know I am not bad mouthing idxco.com or idxbroker.com, just complaining about a few features that they really can't do much about... just the method of the madness of the subdomain IDX... matter of fact you can't beat their prices... but it sure does complicate the adwords and analytics process... Since we are partners in crime... (sorta in the same boat) let me know if you run across anyone with ideas that might help in the process.... by the way are you running adwords or just SEO type traffic... I have devised a few ways to at least allow the google analytics to record the conversions.. but its kinda back handed...

[tommytx]

I was directly contacted by a rep from idxco with a possible solution which I will attempt to apply and see how it goes. If anyone is interested pls pm me... as the idxco rep graciously refrained from posting here as he rightly so feels it would be rude to begin posting on a competitors site... and I agree.. Thanks for all the suggestions from others here. Will let you know if it works... and will provide the solution via PM. I am impressed to say the least that the competitor was not willing to come on here and defend his product.. even when he may have a solution.

[Jonathan Radford]

I'm actually rather astonished that there is no way to track this info. Without any way to monitor your campaigns, you are sailing blindly, whilst removing one of the key benefits online marketing has to offer (i.e. results that can be tracked, in order to monitor and refine campaigns to make them more effective).