Getting Started
#What is the integration checklist for new customers?
Every new Parse.ly integration starts with the same first two steps:
- Include our basic tracker on all pages of your site.
- Include metadata in one of our recognized formats on all pages of your site.
We offer additional options for adding tracking code via the following partners: Google Tag Manager, Sitecore, Gatsby, Tealium, and Adobe Launch. Note that an integration via Segment is not currently supported.
For WordPress sites, we provide a WordPress plugin that does both steps automatically for you.
If your site is a single page application (SPA), we offer single-page application tracking.
For any dynamically loaded content (such as infinite scroll or image galleries), you may need to configure dynamic tracking to manually send pageview events, rather than relying on the automatic pageviews of the standard tracker.
#Testing your integration
We’re happy to provide a testing site ID and dashboard where you can experiment before rolling the integration out to your production site(s). If you did not receive a sandbox dashboard from our integration team, contact support@parsely.com to get one set up.
#Verification and troubleshooting
In most cases, customers are able to accomplish both integration steps quickly and without hassle. In order to validate your integration, we recommend the following:
- Follow the instructions here to confirm that your site is sending pageviews (or video starts if you have video tracking) to Parse.ly.
- Use our Validator tool to check both that both the tracker and metadata are correct for a particular URL.
- Log into Parse.ly at https://dash.parsely.com/<Your Site ID>/ and see how the data is being received.
If you run into trouble, give the following a try:
- For tracking issues, use our integration troubleshooting guide to help find the most relevant technical documentation.
- For metadata issues, read about how to avoid the most common metadata mistakes.
- Check out our FAQs on the following topics: Getting Started, Tracking, Metadata, Non-Standard Integration, Testing, Using Parse.ly Analytics.
#Additional integration steps for Enterprise customers
While the above two integration steps will provide you with a fully functional analytics dashboard, there are a number of further steps you may want to take to enhance your core integration, depending on your needs.
If you are interested in any of the following steps and are a Starter or Growth tier customer or an Enterprise customer without access to a particular product/feature, please contact value@parsely.com about upgrading your account.
#Tracking campaign data
- Parse.ly automatically tracks campaigns via UTM or ITM parameters.
#Collecting data from other platforms
- Configure tracking for Facebook Instant, Google AMP, or SmartNews. All 3 of these channels are included for enterprise customers.
- Configure tracking for your Android and iOS apps.
- Add Apple News tracking.
#Collecting video/audio data from embedded players
- If you use a supported player, read the specific documentation to see if any additional scripts or configuration is necessary for Parse.ly to automatically detect video events.
- Otherwise, define a strategy for the Parse.ly tracker to discover and detect video events.
#Tracking Conversions
- Understand how your content drives Conversions by tracking those events in your Parse.ly dashboard.
#Customizing data collection
- Modify your tracking integration to define geographic or custom audience segments.
- Provide custom metadata (for use with the Parse.ly API or Data Pipeline).
- Add Network Syndication to understand content performance across multiple sites.
#Configuring other tools
- Parse.ly Overlay: Modify your homepage markup to track slot performance via the Overlay bookmarklet.
- Get started with the Parse.ly API.
- Get started with the Parse.ly Data Pipeline.
#Final steps
- Schedule a staff training session with your account manager.
- Invite your colleagues to create Parse.ly logins
#How do I integrate Parse.ly?
Getting set up with Parse.ly is generally an easy and painless process. The integration is done by a member of your tech team, a developer for your site, or anyone who manages your CMS for that matter.
If you're the person responsible for this process, consult our comprehensive integration checklist and make sure you've completed every step before you get up and running.
Setup overview:
- Sign up for a trial and obtain a Site ID.
- Kick things off on our Signup Page to start a trial or contact your account manager.
- Dropping two bits of code into your CMS (or alternatively using a plugin or tag manager).
- Our Javascript Tracker
- Our Metadata Tag
- Verifying the above mentioned code snippets are properly added to your site.
- Using our Validator Tool
- Using the setup page to verify the implementation
- Start tracking content on your site.
- Select your time zone on the setup page
- Click the "Start Tracking" button on the setup page
- View your analytics in your Parse.ly dashboard.
- You can log into your dashboard by visiting dash.parsely.com/<your site ID> (Remember: your Site ID is similar to your site's domain).
Again, make sure that whoever is in charge of this process has completed every step on the comprehensive integration checklist. Should you run into any errors or issues along the way, feel free to reach out to us in your integration project, to integrations@parsely.com, or your dedicated Account Manager.
#What is my site ID?
Your Site ID is your key to Parse.ly. It, most commonly, looks like your domain of your website, ie: parsely.com
.
The Site ID should never include www
, http
, or https
, :
or /
.