How to implement Google Website Optimizer in the Joomla Website

February 17, 2010 | Posted by LUV | 1 Comment

Has anyone whose website created by Joomla found the problems when trying to installing the Google Website Optimizer Script in the landing pages. I did find a problem in that I could not correctly install ‘Control Script’ in the original page since google instructs that the ‘Control Script’ has to be placed in very begining of the page. In other words, the script has to be placed under </head>. In order to do that, I have to add the script in the template, which is used by every web page but I do not want every page in my website to have the ‘Control Script’. Therefore, my solution is cloning the current template, renaming it and assigning it to the landing page. This can be done by the following steps;

- Create the folder that will be used to store the files used for current template. You may name the folder like ‘yourcurrenttemplatename_googleoptimizer’.
- Download all files in the current template folder to this folder
- Open the file ‘index.php’ and place the ‘Control Script’ under </head> and save.
- Open the file ‘templateDetails.xml’ and edit the template information. Otherwise, in the backend system, the current template and the template used for Google Optimizer will have the same name.
- Upload this folder to ‘Templates’ folder.
- Open the Joomla Backend System (i.e. http://www.xxxx.com/administrator/) and go to ‘Extensions’ Tab then select ‘Template Manager’ Menu. The template that will be used for Google Optimizer shoud be available in the list.

Now, the template having the ‘Control Script’ that will be used for Google Optimizer is ready. Next, you have to assign it to your landing page.

- In the template manager, double click the template for Google Optimizer.
- For the section ‘Menu Assignment’, in the topic ‘Menus’ check ‘Select form list’.
- In the topic ‘Menu Selections’, choose the menu of your landing page.

This is it

However, if anyone has the better solution for this please please please post your comment here. I and probably other web developers will be appreciate.