Eric Severance

I use IntenseDebate for the comment system on my blog. I also use Google Analytics to keep stats on how many people visit my site. To integrate the two, I created a Google Analytics plugin for IntenseDebate.  With this plugin, when someone leaves a comment, an event is added in Google Analytics.  This event can then be used with advanced segments in Google Analytics to see metrics focusing just on visits that lead to comments.

To see the IntenseDebate events in Google Analytics, browse to Content -> Event Tracking -> Categories ->IntenseDebate

The plugin is not currently in the approved list of IntenseDebate plugins.  I’d like to do more testing before submitting it.  If you’d like to help test, you can download my IntenseDebate Google Analytics plugin and add it to your IntenseDebate custom scripts.

The plugin can be customized to create a virtual page view if you’d like to create a goal based on comments.  To enable this, add the following to your IntenseDebate custom scripts.

var id_ganalytics_plugin = id_ganalytics_plugin || {};
id_ganalytics_plugin.use_vpage = true;

With this enabled, a page view for /service/IntenseDebate/CommentPosted will be created each time a comment is posted.

The plugin can further be customized to change the event that is tracked and to change the virtual page.  The following options control the event.  See the event tracking overview page for documentation on category, action, and label.

var id_ganalytics_plugin = id_ganalytics_plugin || {};
// Use id_ganalytics_plugin.use_event to enable/disable event based tracking
id_ganalytics_plugin.use_event = true;
 
// Use id_ganalytics_plugin.event_category to set the event category
id_ganalytics_plugin.event_category = 'IntenseDebate';
 
// Use id_ganalytics_plugin.event_action to set the event action
id_ganalytics_plugin.event_action = 'Comment Posted';
 
// Use id_ganalytics_plugin.event_label to set the event label
id_ganalytics_plugin.event_label = location.href

The following two options control the virtual page views

var id_ganalytics_plugin = id_ganalytics_plugin || {};
 
// Use id_ganalytics_plugin.use_vpage to enable/disable virtual page tracking
 id_ganalytics_plugin.use_vpage = false;
 
// Use id_ganalytics_plugin.vpage to set the virtual page to be tracked
id_ganalytics_plugin.vpage = '/service/IntenseDebate/CommentPosted';

Leave me a comment if you find this useful, or if there is anything you’d like to see chaged.