Measurements

If you are comfortable using Jekyll, then you can simply add it as you see fit. Remember to get the website users’ consent if needed.

Adding tracking is for the most part quite simple, especially if your tracking does not require consent.

Plausible.io

You need a plausible.io account and register your domain. Once that is done, all you need to do (as of June 2023) is to add a script to your head tag.

That can be done by creating a file (if it doesn’t exist already) _includes/head.html. with the content

{% if site.plausible.enabled %}
  <script defer data-domain="{{ site.plausible.dataDomain }}" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>
{% endif %}

See more options in the plausible documentation

And in your configuration files _config.yml and _config_staging.yml, _config_uat.yml you add

plausible:
  enabled: false # in _config.yml it should be true, in other domains you probably do not want tracking
  dataDomain: "your-domain.org"

It will now check your config per environment. If you have plausible enabled, it will insert the <script defer ... part into the <head>-tag of all pages so that plausible can measure visitors.

Create a Google Analytics ID

We no longer recommend using Google Analytics as it is now illegal in Europe unless you modify GA in various ways to make it compliant. There are other more privacy respecting alternatives.

You need to go to https://analytics.google.com/ and create an analytics property.

Add configuration

Add following to your /_config.yml file.

# The text for the terms can be changed by adding translations for 'terms', 'acceptTerms' and 'rejectTerms' in `/_data/translations.yml`.
siteMeasurements:
  enable: true # When enabled there will be a popup asking the user for their consent. If they accept then the function "attachMeasurements" will be called. You can overwrite this function by adding a file `/_includes/js/measure.js` and replace the function.
  GA_ID: "G-XXXXXXXXXX" # Your Google analytics ID. Sometimes they start with UA-XXXXX-X other times with G-XXXXXXXX depending on how you set it up
  termsVersion: "2021-07-06" # A version number for your terms. If you change this, then the users will see the popup again asking them to confirm/reject anew.

Secondly you need to provide the text for the popup. You do so in /_data/translations.yml. E.g.

terms:
  en: |
    We use cookies on our website. Some are technically necessary, others help us improve your user experience. You can decline non-essential cookies by selecting “Reject”. Please see our [Privacy Policy](/privacy-policy) for further information about our privacy practices and use of cookies.
  da: |
    Vi bruger cookies. Læs mere [her](/da/privacy-policy)
acceptTerms:
  en: 'Accept'
  da: 'Jeg accepterer'
rejectTerms:
  en: 'Reject'
  da: 'Nej tak'

Add a page with your privacy policy

You need to provide a page with your privacy policy. We have prepared one you can use that should suffice if all you do is use Google Analytics. See Privacy Policy template for more details on usage and conditions.

Overwrite the default tracking scripts

When the user accepts the terms then a function is called that attaches the measurement scripts. This function is called when the user clicks accept and on subsequent pages if the cookie (or rather localStorage variable has been set. The users consent/rejection is stored in local storage as GBIF_terms).

If they accept then the function “attachMeasurements” will be called. You can overwrite this function by adding a file /_includes/js/measure.js and replace the function.