Concern / Inquiry regarding Instant Click & its affect on Analytics Javascripts

[jkdove]

I'm concerned about the effects of pre-loading the pages with Instant Click having erroneous results on analytics programs that run on Javascripts, such as Google Analytics (and most others for that fact). If the user merely hovers, pre-loads the page, yet never actually visits the page, that is just bad data.

I can easily see a use-case being those with link indices containing visual CTA's, such as YouTube videos featured by clickable still-shot thumbnails. The user goes about browsing the page, most often using their mouse as a visual marker ... so they are browsing, loading, browsing, loading ...lather, rinse, repeat, yet never actually making the jump.

Perhaps I'm just not sure of the actual process taking place? Do the pages "pre-load" in such a way so as trigger JS's to fire? Am I getting this completely wrong? If I'm getting it Correct & they are firing the "on page view" trigger, even if the user only hovers over a Single link & doesn't actually make the jump, that is still conflated data that can really muck up the works on an analytics report.

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter. Thank you for Everything you folks do, it's an amazing tool that just keeps getting better and better. Great job, keep up the great work.

 

[hai]

Yes that is true. Preloading will conflict with Analytics scripts.

 

[Reverse Wine Snob]

Testing this out and noticed that while it is amazingly fast, a lot of the javascript on the pre-loaded page never loads, even after clicking. (Social sharing, ads, etc in my case.) Because of that it doesn't help...

 

[jkdove]

Testing this out and noticed that while it is amazingly fast, a lot of the javascript on the pre-loaded page never loads, even after clicking. (Social sharing, ads, etc in my case.) Because of that it doesn't help...

Agreed, because of it, I can't say that it actually "works". It's a great idea, though I think cache preloading is a better technique vs active loading. I may just not be understanding how it actually works. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

 

[Reverse Wine Snob]

Yes, they usually talk about new features in their wordpress Wednesday series on their blog so I'm hoping they will cover this soon to give us some more info. Would love to explore it more if it would load the entire page without messing up the analytics...it was almost instantaneous loading when I had it turned on, which was pretty cool. Although I suppose it is only a benefit for desktop anyway...

 

[jkdove]

Although I suppose it is only a benefit for desktop anyway...

How so? LSC provides separate mobile caching and with responsive sites, it should fire the same as desktop, no? To be clear, I am asking, not stating.

 

[lclarke]

This page may answer some of your questions: http://instantclick.io/how-it-works
While Instant Click is cool, it's not necessarily right for all situations.
BTW, glad you are liking the WordPress Wednesday series. I wasn't planning to discuss this feature, but I'll think about it now that I know there's interest!

 

[Reverse Wine Snob]

How so? LSC provides separate mobile caching and with responsive sites, it should fire the same as desktop, no? To be clear, I am asking, not stating.

I was just guessing since there is no "hovering" on mobile, but looking at the link Lisa just shared I guess there is. Plus some of the benefit is not just in the preloading but in not reloading scripts on each page. It's very interesting just not sure if it is really practical for most sites...