Parse.ly Integration: Getting Started

Every new Parse.ly integration starts with the same first two foundational steps:

1. Include our basic tracker on all pages of your site.
2. 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// and see how the data is being received.

If you run into trouble, give the following a try:

• For tracking issues, review some commonly asked integration questions
• For metadata issues, read about how to avoid the most common metadata mistakes.
• Check out our FAQs on the following topics: Tracking, Metadata, Non-Standard Integration, Testing, Dashboard

Additional integration steps

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.

Tracking campaign data

• Parse.ly automatically tracks campaigns via supported parameters, such as UTM or ITM.

Collecting data from other platforms

• Configure tracking for Facebook Instant, Google AMP, or SmartNews. All three 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.

Using your Parse.ly products

• Invite your colleagues to create Parse.ly logins
• Schedule a staff training session with your account manager.

What is my site ID?

Your Site ID is your key to Parse.ly. Most commonly, it looks like the domain of your website, ie: parsely.com.

The Site ID should never include www, http, or https, : or /.