Custom Dimensions – Authors, Categoy, Publication date no longer worling

Thanks for getting in touch @anntao. Site Kit can indeed create custom dimensions for users if they don’t already exist (see this guide). The dimensions Site Kit created if the related key metrics are added include the below:

• googlesitekit_post_author?
• googlesitekit_post_categories?
• googlesitekit_post_date?
• googlesitekit_post_type

Regarding your particular case, if you’d like to share the following we can hopefully find out more:

1. Your Site Health information. You can use this form to share privately if preferred.??
2. How are you determining that the dimensions are not added? I ask as within the Site Kit dashboard, if dimensions required for your active key dimensions no longer exist, you should see a notice to add them.
3. Do you recall having made changes regarding your active property connected within Site Kit, or at Analytics level?

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Thanks, James. Shared the form with the site health info

On your questions

2 : Many reasons:
– Site Kit frontend is showing data from analytics for visitors, channels, locations, devices but “Most popular authors by pageviews” or “Top categories by pageviews” cards don’t display data and show: “No data to display: your site hasn’t received any visitors yet”
– Site Kit used to show data for the dimensions mentioned above and I could see that directly in GA4, in Looker Studio or News Consumer Insights. The dimensions are still present but only show (not set) values.

3 : No, but Newspack (the CMS) and Jetpack are tighly linked… maybe Newspack made changes?

Many thanks for the update @anntao.

– Site Kit used to show data for the dimensions mentioned above and I could see that directly in GA4, in Looker Studio or?News Consumer Insights. The dimensions are still present but only show (not set) values.

Based on the “Not set” mention, I suspect that something has modified how the author and category titles. I saw this as a “Not set” value isn’t uncommon in Google Analytics for pages that don’t have a valid title added, with a “Not set” value used as a placeholder.

From reviewing your Site Health information I can also see that you do have the required custom dimensions added. I can also see valid responses when checking your authors REST API endpoint, as well as your categories endpoint. To troubleshoot this further, please share the following:

1. When you mention you did see such reports in GA4, can you share a screenshot of what you see, ensuring the “Most popular authors by pageviews” or “Top categories by pageviews”?do have values? You may need to change the reporting period back to a time when there were valid entries.
2. Have you tried deleting the custom dimensions from Google Analytics directly? If not, please go ahead and do so (GA dashboard > Admin > Properties > Custom Definitions). After doing so and visiting the Site Kit dashboard, you’ll be asked to update your metrics.
3. Do you have a large number of custom dimensions added for the connected GA4 property? I ask as one possibility is that you may be reaching defined quotas.

Once we have the above we can investigate this further. One thing we may need to do, is check whether the data is being added to Google Analytics directly (which is where SK sources such dimensions from). You can add a card to your GA4 dashboard, showing dimension related data. Such a card can include the dimensions added via Site Kit (screenshot).

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

As we didn’t receive a response I’ll mark this as resolved. Feel free to open a new support topic if you continue to encounter issues, or reopen this topic and we’d be happy to assist.