Cookies used by Google Analytics - Part 3 - _utmb and _utmz cookies.

Now that you have understood _utma cookies, let’s move further to _utmb cookie.

2. _utmb Cookie:  This cookie is used to identify a new session or visit. Every session has a default time out of 30 mins.The _utmb cookie gets deleted every 30 mins of inactivity and a new cookie is created, counting it as a new session.

Now lets break up the content field to understand each segment the way we did with _utma cookie.

a.)    Domain Hash : Here number 223957632 states the domain visited in the same way it was in _utma cookie.

b.)    Page Views: Here the number 5 denotes number of pages viewed during a visit.

c.)     Outbound Link: The third field 10 denotes the number of outbound link clicks counting down from 10.

d.)    Current Session:  This number 1393393671 denotes the time stamp of the current session.

Name:	__utmb
Content:	223957632.5.10.1393393671
Domain:	.jindal.utdallas.edu
Path:	/
Send for:	Any kind of connection
Accessible to script:	Yes
Created:	Tuesday, February 25, 2014 11:50:56 PM
Expires:	Wednesday, February 26, 2014 12:20:56 AM

3._utmz cookie: This cookie gives information about how exactly people are reaching your website.This cookie is valid till 6 months and gets updated every time you visit the website.Now lets understand how google analytics captures information from this cookie.

Let’s divide the content field into different segment.

a.)    Domain Hash: Here number 223957632 represents the domain or the website visited. You can tally the same from above as I have extracted all the three cookies from the same website.

b.)    Current Session: This number 1393393671 denotes the time stamp on which this website was visited. This value gets updated every time you visit the website.

c.)     Session number: This cookie also calculates the sessions, the way _utma cookie does.

d.)    Campaign number: This number gets incremented every time user reaches the website through a particular medium. (*Need Insight on this.)

e.)    Utmcsr: This field states the source from which user arrived to the website. Here the source is google.

f.)     Utmcmd: This field is used to state the medium used by the individual to reach the website. Medium is usually organic if a person reaches the website via a search engine.

g.)    Utmctr: This field states the keyword used to reach the website.

Name:	__utmz
Content:	223957632.1393393671.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)
Domain:	.jindal.utdallas.edu
Path:	/
Send for:	Any kind of connection
Accessible to script:	Yes
Created:	Tuesday, February 25, 2014 11:50:56 PM
Expires:	Wednesday, August 27, 2014 12:50:56 PM

You can notice the changes in the field content with different values of the current session, session number, campaign number etc.

Name:	__utmz
Content:	223957632.1393446186.2.2.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)
Domain:	.jindal.utdallas.edu
Path:	/
Send for:	Any kind of connection
Accessible to script:	Yes
Created:	Wednesday, February 26, 2014 2:23:05 PM
Expires:	Thursday, August 28, 2014 3:23:05 AM

References :

Google Analytics Cookie Usage on Websites. (2014, October 3). Retrieved from developers.google.com: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage

Holloway, G. (2013, June 20). Google Analytics and Cookies – The Complete Guide. Retrieved from http://www.koozai.com: http://www.koozai.com/blog/analytics/google-analytics-and-cookies/

Path, C. (2010, August 31). GA Basics: The Structure of Cookie Values. Retrieved from www.cardinalpath.com: http://www.cardinalpath.com/GA-Basics-The-Structure-of-Cookie-Values/

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.