Below are some pretty basic tips to Site Catalyst setup, they may seem straight forward, but i am continually surprised at how poorly Omniture is set up, so maybe they're not so obvious!

1. Have one scode file
Duplicating the scode file is painful and you will eventually make mistakes. Keep all your code in one file.

2. Use a cachebuster
This will ensure your javascript code updates propagate quickly. Otherwise your existing users may not reflect the changes, which can complicate and confuse reporting. A cachebuster automatically adds a parameter to the end of the javascript file reference, which forces it to be reloaded. i.e. scode.js?cb=1234

3. Make it protocol independent
Don't put "http:" in your file reference, this will allow the javascript to work for either http or https. i.e src="//www.example.com/js/scode.js"

4. Use the s.pageName variable properly
This is by far the most important thing to set, i can't even stress that enough. Any extra effort to get it right is worth it. Your pageName should preferably follow a set structure so your javascript can utilise it fully. If you get this right, your reports will immediately become more powerful. We typically follow a structure like the following:
site:sub-section:sub-sub-section:sub-sub-sub-section

This should follow the site directory structure where possible. i.e. www.site.com/sub-section/sub-sub-section/sub-sub-sub-section

By breaking this up and putting it into several props and eVars, you will be able to look at success events at a site, sub section, sub sub section and sub sub sub section level, which is very useful. You will also be able to trigger certain events based on these values. Code example below, which should also be copied from props to eVars:

The output of the above will be:
s.prop1 = site
s.prop2 = site:sub-section
s.prop3 = site:sub-section:sub-sub-section
s.prop4 = site:sub-section:sub-sub-section:sub-sub-sub-section

5. Minimise the on page javascript
Any logic you can use to trigger events based on the pageName, the URL or section variables, will make things so much easier. If you can get code off the individual pages and keep all the logic in the scode file, you will greatly simplify any deployments and rollbacks. For some things you can't avoid putting code on individual pages, but it's suprising how often it can be avoided.

An example might be a segmentation rule that will label someone once they have stayed for at least 2 pages in a particular site section. For things like this, very small changes to the scode can be very powerful, if you paid attention to tip 1 above, they're also immediately site wide!

About the author Hamish Ogilvy