Is it possible to use Google Analytics to track file downloads?

Posted by Eric Falsken on Pro Webmasters See other posts from Pro Webmasters or by Eric Falsken
Published on 2011-05-16T16:41:05Z Indexed on 2012/09/02 15:52 UTC
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google-analytics

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analytics

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traffic

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logging

It's always bothered me that Google Analytics (and similar embedded web traffic monitoring services) can only see a reflection of the traffic going to my server and can only see page visits since it depends on the browser executing a Javascript snippet. If I want to track real downloads of a software package (ZIP file), there's no way Google Analytics can possibly tell me that because its javascript can't be attached to a ZIP file. Is there a way I can upload my log files to Google so that the pointy-haired boss can see downloads of our ZIP/PDF/BIN files and not just visits to the download page?

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