Google Analytics Advanced Filter

Google Analytics Advanced Filter allows you to control the parameters of your data.

Set Up URL Filter

For sites with different sub domains and or domains, I use a Google Analytics advanced filter to allow me to see the full host/domain name.

1. Click on the Site > Profile Settings > Edit Filter
2. Under Filter Type choose - Custom Filter from the drop down menu and tick on Advanced and configure as below:
   
   1. Field A > Extract A - Host name - (.*)
   2. Field B > Extract B - Request URI - (.*)
   3. Output to > constructor - Request type URI - $A1$B1
   4. Field A required - Yes
   5. Field B required - No
   6. Override Output Field - Yes
   7. Case sensitive - No

This filter extracts all of your host names and outputs them to all URI's requested (.*) (all regular expressions) to all of the fields ($A1$B1) so that you end up being able to see the URI including domain in your reports.

Using Logical Page Names

It’s really important for your web pages to have logical and understandable page names on google analytics reports so that you can easily see what pages people are going to on your site.

If your site is dynamic, using a Content Management System, it most likely does not display logical page names, instead using something such as /default.asp?docid34267? . This type of page name is not at all helpful in analytics.

You can resolve this by either:

• Adding the urchin tracker javascript tag at the bottom of your webpage code to call the page name you include in the tag.
• Using URL Rewirte to give logical page names to sites - a much neater solution.

Setting up a GA advanced filter to replace the default URI with page titles doesn't help, as page titles will have been search engine optimised. Use the javascript tag to give your pages the names you want in your reports.

Javascript Urchintracker Tag

The javascript urchintracker tag - the area at the end in brackets is where you add the logical name.

Add the tag to the bottom of your webpage code just before the body tag.

The first name in brackets being the section of the site, the second name being the site subsection or product details and the third the current webpage - but these can be defined by you:

Sample Script

language=”javascript”>urchinTracker(”//books/analyticsbooks/googleanalyticsshortcuts”)

3. Give pages a concise, logical and meaningful name that reflects their position in the site.

Using the wireframes/site tree, define page names according to:

section/subsection/file - the current position on the site.

Do not use spaces or other special characters such as ‘&’, ‘%’ or ‘+’ in your page names or the tag will not work.

Whilst setting up a list of pagenames, map out all of the site pages with the help of the site tree/wireframes to avoid using page names that been used elsewhere on the web site.

Consider prefixing for example your FAQ page with a unique identifier - e.g.‘productfaq’.

GA advanced filters are powerful tools once you know how to use them. Being able to see host names (domain) allows you to know which domain particular pages come from as well being able to drill down into specific domains.

The javascript urchin tracker tag gives you the ability to give each page a logical name - which is better for GA reports, useful for segmentation purposes.

NEXT: Google Website Optimizer

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