When adding a Website to AIUNIFY Analytics, you must choose a Tracking Type.
The system provides two options:
Lightweight Tracking
Designed for simpler, privacy-focused website analytics.
Advanced Tracking
Designed for deeper visitor analytics and behavioral insights.
This is one of the most important decisions you make when setting up a Website because the Tracking Type determines which Analytics capabilities can be used for that Website.
The Website creation screen explicitly warns that:
The Tracking Type cannot be changed later.
For that reason, understand the differences in this chapter before creating the Website.
The Tracking Type is selected when you create a Website.
Navigate to:
Websites → Add website
The Tracking type field presents:
| Tracking TypeInterface Label | |
| Lightweight | Lightweight tracking |
| Advanced | Advanced tracking |
The Website creation form displays explanatory text for the selected option and places the warning that the Tracking Type cannot be changed later directly below the selection.
After you choose a Tracking Type, the creation form also changes to show the options that apply to that mode.
| CapabilityLightweight TrackingAdvanced Tracking | ||
| Website analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Pageviews | Yes | Yes |
| Realtime Analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Goals | Yes | Yes |
| Outbound Click tracking | Yes, when enabled | Yes, when enabled |
| Returning visitor association | No | Yes |
| Detailed Visitor history | No | Yes |
| Visitors section | Not available in the same advanced form | Yes |
| Visitor Events | No | Yes, when enabled |
| Heatmaps | No | Yes, when enabled |
| Session Replays | No | Yes, when enabled |
| Custom Parameters for Visitors | No | Yes |
| IP Tracking option | Not presented for Lightweight mode | Available for Advanced mode when enabled |
| Cookies used by this tracking mode | No | Advanced mode uses local storage/identifiers |
| Local storage | No | Yes |
| Random visitor identifiers | No | Yes |
The application's own help specifically identifies visitor history, Heatmaps, Session Replays, detailed statistics, and Custom Parameters as advantages of Advanced Tracking. It identifies Lightweight Tracking as not using cookies or local storage and states that it cannot associate a visitor with previous visits or provide Heatmaps and Session Replays.
Lightweight Tracking is designed for users who want a simpler and more privacy-oriented Analytics configuration.
AIUNIFY Analytics describes this mode as focused on:
The application's built-in documentation states that the Lightweight tracking script is less than 1 kB compressed, does not use cookies or local storage, and does not store visitor identifiers for linking visits together.
AIUNIFY Analytics can still collect Website activity without building the same persistent visitor history available through Advanced Tracking.
You can therefore use Lightweight Tracking when your primary need is understanding Website traffic rather than reconstructing detailed behavior for individual returning visitors.
The main limitation of Lightweight Tracking is that Analytics cannot associate a visitor with previous visits in the same way as Advanced Tracking.
As a result, several behavioral Analytics capabilities are not available.
Most importantly:
Heatmaps and Session Replays are not available under Lightweight Tracking.
The application's navigation also confirms this behavior. Visitors, Heatmaps, and Replays are shown when the selected Website uses Advanced Tracking, while those advanced sections are excluded from the Lightweight Website navigation.
Choosing Lightweight Tracking does not mean that AIUNIFY Analytics becomes only a basic page counter.
The system still provides Analytics functionality that can be used without Advanced visitor identification.
This includes core areas such as:
Dashboard
Review overall Website Analytics.
Pageviews
Review tracked page activity. The application contains separate Pageview processing for Lightweight and Advanced Websites and automatically directs the user to the appropriate version.
Realtime
Monitor recent Website activity.
Goals
Track conversions and desired Website outcomes.
Outbound Clicks
Track supported clicks that lead visitors away from your Website when enabled.
The built-in Lightweight Tracking help also links directly to Goals, confirming that Goal tracking is part of the Lightweight workflow.
Pageviews are handled differently depending on the Website's Tracking Type.
When you select Pageviews, AIUNIFY Analytics checks the Tracking Type of the selected Website and sends you to the correct Pageviews interface.
A Lightweight Website uses the Lightweight Pageviews functionality, while an Advanced Website uses the Advanced Pageviews functionality.
This happens automatically; you do not need to manually select which Pageview system to use.
Lightweight Tracking does not use persistent visitor identifiers.
The Website configuration describes Lightweight Tracking as not using:
Cookies → Local Storage → Visitor Identifiers
Because there is no persistent identifier connecting visits together, Analytics cannot determine that separate visits necessarily belong to the same returning visitor.
This is why features based on detailed visitor histories are unavailable.
The system describes Lightweight Tracking as not using cookies, local storage, or identifiers for Visitors.
Advanced Tracking is intended for users who want deeper insight into Website visitor behavior.
Instead of treating Website activity primarily as independent analytics events, Advanced Tracking can use randomly generated visitor identifiers and local storage to associate activity with a particular visitor over time.
The Website creation interface explains that Advanced Tracking uses local storage and random unique identifiers so Analytics can recognize when a user returns and associate visits and other data with that visitor.
This enables the richer behavioral Analytics functions available throughout the system.
One of the primary advantages of Advanced Tracking is in-depth Visitor history.
Advanced Tracking allows Analytics to associate supported Website activity with the same visitor identifier across visits.
This makes features such as the following possible:
Visitor → Sessions → Pageviews → Events → Journey
Instead of only asking:
How many visits did the Website receive?
you can begin asking:
What did this visitor do during their visits?
This capability provides the foundation for the system's Visitors and Visitor Journey functionality.
When an Advanced Tracking Website is selected, Visitors becomes available in the Analytics navigation.
The Visitors area lets you examine visitor-level information and activity.
This can include information such as:
The sidebar source specifically limits the Visitors navigation to Websites using the Advanced tracking type.
Advanced Tracking can enable Track visitors events.
The Website configuration describes Visitor Events as supported interactions including:
This setting appears inside the Advanced Tracking portion of the Website creation form.
Visitor Events provide more detail about how people interact with Website pages beyond simply recording that a page was viewed.
Advanced Tracking enables the Website to use Heatmaps when Heatmap functionality is available to the account.
Heatmaps can visually represent visitor interaction on Website pages.
AIUNIFY Analytics supports concepts including:
Lightweight Tracking does not support Heatmaps. The application's Advanced Tracking help explicitly identifies Heatmaps as an Advanced capability.
Advanced Tracking can also enable Session Replays.
Session Replays provide a visual representation of Website interaction captured during a visitor Session.
When enabled, Replays can help you review how a Visitor interacted with a Website rather than relying only on aggregate statistics.
The Website creation form only presents the Session Replay option within the Advanced Tracking configuration and also checks whether the account has access to the feature.
Therefore:
Advanced Tracking alone does not automatically mean Session Replays are active.
The Session Replay feature must also be available and enabled.
Advanced Tracking Websites can also use the:
Session replays – Hide text selector
setting.
This option lets you enter one or more CSS selectors that identify Website text that should be hidden from Session Replays.
An example selector format shown by the system is similar to:
.custom-class,.another-custom-class
The system describes these selectors as determining which text should be hidden from Replays.
This configuration will be explained fully in the Session Replay chapter.
Advanced Tracking supports Custom Parameters for Visitors.
Custom Parameters allow your Website to provide additional information to the Analytics tracking code.
The built-in documentation gives examples such as:
email, user_id, name
This is particularly useful for Websites with membership or login systems where a business wants to associate its own Website-side information with an Analytics visitor record.
When Custom Parameters are present, Analytics can indicate this next to the Visitor in the Visitors interface.
Custom Parameters are identified by the application's help system as an Advanced Tracking capability.
When IP Tracking functionality is enabled at the system level, an IP tracking option can appear for an Advanced Tracking Website.
The Website creation form places this control inside the Advanced Tracking configuration.
The interface specifically advises that IP storage should only be enabled when appropriate consent has been obtained from Website users.
If the option is not enabled for the Analytics service, you may not see it.
Several Website settings are not limited only to Advanced Tracking.
Depending on account features, both Tracking Types can make use of options such as:
Enables or disables tracking for the Website.
Enables tracking for clicks that lead outside your Website.
The Outbound Click setting appears outside the Advanced-only portion of the Website creation form.
Allows supported Analytics summaries to be delivered by email when the feature is available.
Allows public Website statistics to be enabled where supported, including an optional password.
Allows commonly recognized bots to be excluded from tracking.
Determines whether URL query parameters are included in tracking rather than ignored.
Allows specified IP addresses to be excluded from Website Analytics.
These settings are separate from the core distinction between persistent visitor identification and Lightweight Tracking.
Goals can be used to measure conversions.
Goal types include:
A conversion occurs when the visitor reaches a specified page.
Common examples might include a:
A custom JavaScript action can trigger the Goal.
The application's built-in help identifies custom examples such as:
Goal tracking is not restricted to Advanced Tracking in the application's help structure; Lightweight Tracking documentation also directs users to Goals.
The main privacy-related technical difference between the two modes is how visitor information is persisted.
The system describes Lightweight Tracking as:
No cookies → No local storage → No persistent visitor identifiers
This means it does not build the same returning-visitor profile available through Advanced Tracking.
The application's documentation describes this mode as designed for users who prioritize privacy and performance.
Advanced Tracking uses:
Local storage → Random unique visitor identifiers → Associated visits and activity
That additional persistence is what enables deeper Visitor histories and behavioral tools.
Because privacy and consent requirements can depend on your location, Website, data collection, and applicable regulations, organizations should apply their own privacy and legal requirements when configuring tracking.
There are two different Website settings that should not be confused.
Determines how Analytics operates for that Website:
Lightweight Tracking or Advanced Tracking
Determines whether Analytics tracking for the Website is currently:
Enabled or Disabled
Turning Tracking off does not convert an Advanced Website into a Lightweight Website.
Likewise, turning Tracking back on does not change its Tracking Type.
The Tracking Type is established when the Website is created.
Your Tracking Type affects the Analytics navigation you see.
For an Advanced Website, the navigation can include:
Dashboard → Goals → Outbound Clicks → Realtime → Pageviews → Visitors → Heatmaps → Replays → Annotations → Websites → Teams
For a Lightweight Website, the Advanced visitor-behavior functions are omitted, particularly:
Visitors → Heatmaps → Replays
The source specifically checks the selected Website's Tracking Type before presenting those menu items.
This means switching between two Websites with different Tracking Types can cause the available navigation to change.
That is expected system behavior.
The two modes also affect the type of data available to reports.
With Advanced Tracking, AIUNIFY Analytics can work with visitor-linked information, Sessions, Events, and Visitor history.
With Lightweight Tracking, Analytics processes activity through its separate Lightweight event structure.
The application even maintains separate Pageviews processing for:
Advanced Pageviews
and
Lightweight Pageviews
and automatically opens the correct version for the selected Website.
You do not need to control this manually.
Choose Lightweight Tracking when your primary goals are general Website measurement and a simpler privacy-focused implementation.
It is particularly appropriate when you mainly need functions such as:
Pageviews + Website statistics + Realtime + Goals + Outbound Clicks
and do not need persistent visitor histories, Heatmaps, or Session Replays.
Choose Advanced Tracking when you need deeper behavioral analysis such as:
Visitor histories + Visitor Events + Heatmaps + Session Replays + Custom Parameters
Advanced Tracking is generally the appropriate choice when understanding how individual visitor identifiers interact with the Website across Sessions is important to your Analytics strategy.
Suppose you operate an informational Website and primarily want to understand:
You may determine that Lightweight Tracking provides the level of Analytics you need without enabling deeper behavioral tracking.
Suppose you operate a sales, lead-generation, membership, or conversion-focused Website and want to understand:
In this situation, Advanced Tracking provides the capabilities necessary for deeper behavioral analysis.
The Website creation interface says:
The tracking type cannot be changed later on.
Therefore, do not create the Website until you have decided which mode you need.
If you are uncertain, consider whether you expect to use any of the following:
| NeedRecommended Mode | |
| Detailed returning Visitor history | Advanced |
| Visitors section | Advanced |
| Visitor Events | Advanced |
| Heatmaps | Advanced |
| Session Replays | Advanced |
| Custom Visitor Parameters | Advanced |
| Simpler privacy-focused analytics | Lightweight |
| No cookies/local storage from the Analytics tracking mode | Lightweight |
| General Pageviews and traffic reporting | Lightweight can be sufficient |
| Realtime traffic monitoring | Either |
| Goal tracking | Either |
| Outbound Click tracking | Either, when enabled |
If you expect to use Advanced-only capabilities, select Advanced Tracking before creating the Website.
Choosing Advanced Tracking makes the Website compatible with Advanced functionality, but it does not guarantee that every Advanced feature is enabled for every account.
For example:
The Website creation source specifically checks account feature availability before enabling options such as Visitor Events, Session Replays, and Email Reports.
Therefore:
Tracking Type determines compatibility.
Account configuration determines availability.
Website settings determine whether the available feature is turned on.
Before adding your Website, answer these questions:
If the answer to the advanced behavioral questions is yes, select Advanced Tracking.
If your priority is streamlined Website Analytics without cookies, local storage, or persistent visitor identifiers from this tracking mode, select Lightweight Tracking.
You should now understand the most important setup decision in AIUNIFY Analytics:
Best suited for streamlined, privacy-focused Website Analytics without persistent visitor identification.
Best suited for deeper visitor behavior, Visitor history, Events, Heatmaps, Replays, and Custom Parameters.
Once you have chosen the appropriate Tracking Type, you are ready to create your first Website.