Google Analytics Tracking Cookies
Cookies are small text data given to a web browser by a web server. The data is stored on a website visitors’ hard drive and is returned to the specific web server each time the browser requests a page from that server.
• Determining Visitor Session
• Identifying Unique Visitors
• Tracking Traffic Sources
• Customizing Tracking
• Utilizing Google Website Optimizer
__utma, This cookie lasts for 2 years from setup/update and is typically written to the browser upon the first visit to your site from that web browser. The purpose of this cookie is to determine unique visitors to your site and it is updated with each page view.
__utmb, This cookie lasts for 30 minutes from setup/update and is used to establish and continue a user session with your site.
__utmc, This cookie operates in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether to establish a new session for the user or not. This cookie does not have an expiration date. It expires as soon as the user exits the browser.
__utmz, This cookie lasts 180 days from setup/update and stores the type of referral used by the visitor to reach your website. This cookie is used to identify whether the visitor has reached the site via a direct method, a referring site, a search engine, or a campaign such as a text ad, banner ad or an email campaign. A __utmz cookie contains domain hash, timestamp, session number, campaign numbercould look like: utmz=181178431.1117767825.1.2.
utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=seo
__utmv, This cookie lasts for 2 years from setup/update and is used to create a custom user segment (e.g., paid vs. non-paid visitors). This cookie is optional and will be set only if the setVar method is called.
__utmx, This cookie lasts for 2 years from setup/update and is used by Website Optimizer and only set when the Google Website Optimizer (GWO) tracking code is installed.
Understanding how Google Analytics uses cookies helps with setting up more customized and advanced settings.
Nima Asrar Haghighi, Toronto Web Analytics Consultant
Filed Under: Web Analytics