MultiSite Sub Site ID Mapped Domain and Traffic Control

Are you using the same GA account on all sites? I do, so I see everything as root relative.

Well, yes they are all under a single user account but each domain has it’s own property and thus unique ID.

I noticed the server logs had most of the data I am referring to, however I have also noticed that there are a few referrals from GA that come from one or more of my network sites which do not have a backlink to root anywhere on the website. This leads me to believe that somehow it is possible to see the root domain from sub site domains.

My primary reason for inquiry is due to recent brute force attacks on my network. I’ve just finished installing Better WP Security to compliment other plugins ie BackupBuddy and this will resolve the issue of attempted (unsuccessful) exploits. I think a lot of the hits I refer to are bots seeing this somehow.

Perhaps BWPS will address this as it reads to imply with my configuration so I guess I will see.

In general, I would prefer all my sub site domains to have no reference whatsoever to my root domain, including media etc, if possible without creating a lot of work.

Well, yes they are all under a single user account but each domain has it’s own property and thus unique ID.

So no ?? They’re NOT the same. S’okay. I worded it poorly.

That said, I see unique IDs as … their own thing. I mean, in GA, UA-65xxxxx-1 (main site) and UA-65xxxxx-2 (mapped domain subsite) are totally separate. So where are you seeing them all be the same?

In general, I would prefer all my sub site domains to have no reference whatsoever to my root domain, including media etc, if possible without creating a lot of work.

Not really possible. It will always be possible to determine, with a little work, what the ‘home’ domain is. Nor does it really matter at the end of the day. If separation and privacy is THAT important, you shouldn’t be on Multisite.

I appreciate your feedback, Ipstenu.

The data for rootdomain.com within GA includes domain2.com as referral traffic but domain2.com has absolutely nothing in terms of backlinks to rootdomain.com.

I’ve looked through several records over the past year or so since implementing the network for all my clients and what I’ve seen are domain2.com referral paths that when reviewed may have references to stylesheets at rootdomain.com but I’ve also seen this for websites that have absolutely no reference to rootdomain.com on the site or referral path.

That is what I am curious to determine.

If there is a method to mask or otherwise remove the references to rootdomain.com altogether it would be ideal. I was thinking something either in wp-config.php or even .htaccess.

That alone is what I am wondering and I’m hopeful someone in the community will chime in with ideas or feedback to work towards a solution.

I realize that “with a little work” someone may be able to determine I am running a MU network and uncover the domain, but that is not a concern and it’s not so much about privacy as much as it is curiosity and from the perspective of SEO how it may impact index of MU network, after all GU clearly see’s the referral traffic :/

If it weren’t for MU I wouldn’t be in this business lol

Just making sure you aren’t trying to solve the unsolvable ??

*hmm*

How are you implimenting GA? Is it perchance tracking wp-admin pages?

I have noticed a few referral paths that makes reference to network referral paths, however these are not the referrals in question. The referral paths I’m seeing are actual URL from public facing websites.

I can’t reproduce this :/

Without knowing the exact URLs and referal paths, my only guess is you still have some lingering paths in images and such that didn’t get changed to the mapped domain.

I would use https://github.com/interconnectit/Search-Replace-DB and search for everything in wp_x_posts and wp_x_postmeta for the old URL, replace with mapped.

Here are examples of referral domain and referral paths of which has no reference to the root domain.

The root domain is an addon domain within WHM / cPanel environtment.

Root domain: https://iemajen.com

Referrals:

1) https://asphaltanimals.com/kentuckys-asphalt-animals/

2) https://frankclose.com/portfolio (not even on the cPanel account or WPMU)

These are within the last week.

Ipstenu, I’ve considered using a search / replace for the DB but my concern is that with ~100 domains and adding new all the time, how to maintain consistency without having to repeat. Also, some of the paths are in files code which occurs when sites are pre launch without domain.

You my be correct that there is no real solution and I’m just being nit-picky and may need to live with it, but I like to believe anything is possible ??

To your knowledge, is there any slick htaccess mods that might address the files code references essentially re-writing the absolute paths even if simply masking?

Thanks again for all your feedback.

Not really, since you don’t know where they’re coming from or when they went to in order to get to https://asphaltanimals.com/kentuckys-asphalt-animals/ and such :/

Fair enough. I will keep an eye and gather more information and revisit this in the coming months I suppose.

Enjoy the holidays and happy new year!

I’m going to go ahead and close this topic.