If you republish our stories on the web, we require that you include our tracking pixel tag, which allows us to measure how many people are seeing our stories while respecting users’ privacy and preserving page load speeds.
Why use a tracking pixel?
One way we measure our impact and growth is through page views. We can see views to our own site, but don’t know how often our stories are being seen elsewhere across the web. The tracking pixel allows us to capture that data.
What data are you tracking?
We collect only the title and URL of the page the pixel is loaded on. We do not set cookies or use any other data to identify users individually or track unique views.
How does it work?
The tag loads a script that captures the URL and title of the page and requests a 1x1 pixel transparent gif. The URL and page title are included in the gif request, which allows us to log the view.
What do I need to do?
Just include the following tag anywhere in your page’s HTML. The tag is automatically included in our HTML republishing code.
<script async data-name=”city-pixel” src=”https://pixel.thecity.nyc/pixel.js”></script>
How does this affect page load?
The pixel will not materially affect the speed with which your pages load. The tag, as written, specifies the “async” property, which means that the script is loaded asynchronously and won’t block the browser from parsing the page. The script and gif themselves add 0.65kB and 0.035kB to the page respectively, and less if the script is cached by the user. The average request should take less than 200 milliseconds.
Feel free to reach out to us with any questions at info@thecity.nyc.