I usually insert the GA code directly in the index.php file.

An SEO specialist the client hired insisted I use the Artio plugin so that "we could track virtuemart".
Since most of the world does not use VM but instead checks the box in GA to tell it that the site has an e-commerce shop, I am curious about what the Plugin does that cannot be done in the code of the site or at GA.

Can someone take 5 minutes to explain that to me in broad strokes? Thank you.

Sure. Google has an additional script that captures the cart transaction. Really the best place to get information about Google is of course Google. I would highly recommend this Google article to better explain the process

www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20...30dcf417ec&hl=en

The module is not really supported anymore although there are some updates that can be made to the the code. Now with Asynchronous tracking who knows?

Now I did not explain the why:
e Commerce sites sell 'stuff'. Your 'SEO specialist' is trying to calculate the value of the traffic coming into the site. It might seem obvious that one could just look at the sales reports to determine this information but it is not applied to the site analytics. Which pages are more valuable? what pages generate conversion and how much revenue!!! for that conversion. If I spend 10K for Adwords and get $50 in sales what's my ROI? That is a dramatic example and many times it's more subtle then that, thus the analytics. Its to remove the 'gut' feeling man business people use and create a real picture of the cost of marketing. It does me no good as your SEO specialist (if I were) to generate 20K of visitors a day with no conversions, or more subtle, I charge your client $20K for $20K in Revenue increase directly related to the analytics instead a throw at the dartboard? capisci?

Thank you for you replay. I am afraid I did not explain myself correctly in the OP, I apologize.
I know how GA tracks sales and how important the information can be when analyzing a site's performance. I am actually no newbie myself. I just never used the Artio Plugin, preferring to tll GA the site was e-commerce and inserting the code in the index.php file.

My question was specific about the Artio Plugin itself. GA gives you an option to inform the system if a website is also an E-commerce store. That is usually a checkbox in the GA panel.
The Artio Plugin also has a switch to allow it to generate the code to track VM sales and behavior.

What does the Artio Plugin does that is not possible to do by activating the e-commerce switch in GA?

Virtuemart operates a bit outside of the Joomla CMS. due to its origins as a stand alone program. I was wondering if the Artio plugin did anything specific for Virtuemart that wasn't possible from the GA controls.

In fact, this has become even more important since when I updated Joomla to 1.5.17 the Artio Plugin stopped working (actually, it crashed the entire site and I had to deactivate it and place the GA code back into the index.php file).

I guess I can install it on a non 1.5.17 site and check the source code with and without the VM switch activated in the plugin, but I figured I'd ask here first.

Thank you again for the replay.

Nice to know about getting VM tracking.