How to see if Google Analytics events are firing with Chrome Developer Tools
If you’re using Google Analytics and are using the events tracking, you’ve probably spent a decent amount of time clicking on your links and then waiting for them to show up in your reports. But there’s a way to use developer tools to see if the events are firing correctly as you’re clicking the link.
I found this article that shows how to do it in Firebug, but Firebug in Chrome really stinks, so here’s how to do it using Chrome:
- Open Chrome’s Developer Tools (wrench icon -> Tools -> Developer tools, or ctrl+shift+I).
- Click the Network tab in Developer Tools
- Click on the action that you have events tracking set up on.
- Find the _utm.gif that will show up in the left column of Developer Tools that should have loaded when you clicked the action that you’re tracking with events. (note: I usually find it’s easier to find if you clear out this screen—with the clear button just below the left side—before you click on your action)
- In the Headers tab on the right, you’ll see the request URL. Look for the utme variable that will show if the event fired properly, and that will show the category, action and label of the event.
For example, to track a click on a mail to link, here’s what the variable looks like for me: &utme=5(email*send*rdossinger%40example.com), showing the category ‘email’, the action ‘send’ and the label of my email address. It’s working!
