Using Filters On Google Analytics
-
Hi Guys,
I am In need of some technical help with regards to Google analytics. One of my clients has a site providing HR Software on SaaS basis. The users login via the site for the various HR Tools. Obviously this is skewing the analytics data and showing 10,000+ extra visitors that actually don't exist. Now I understand i can add filters and exclude certain pages for instance the login page, however, some users will visit the home page then click login. How can I exclude them just to show new visitors to the site rather than users that are just trying to login.
Hope this makes sense
Neil
-
I absolutely recommend what Mark is suggesting here, however you will still have the problem that you're excluding sometimes the wrong kind of visitors as not everybody will be logged in automatically etc..
-
You'll want to configure a custom variable at a session level - you need to have your site fire the custom variable when users log in or are logged in in their sessions, and then once you have this configured, you can look at logged in vs non logged in behavior and all of the other goodies analytics provides.
You should refer to this information here - https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingCustomVariables#examples
It's not just a quick change in analytics, but will require some dev work on your end to make this work, but it should solve your questions and give you new insightful data that you can action to improve your site and your users' experience on it, so I would recommend doing it.
Good luck,
Mark
-
This makes perfect sense and is relevant to my interests. Unfortunately we track any and all, but are also a SaaS company with skewed analytics due to logins. We normally just rely on the new visitors numbers, but it would be kind of nice to separate the returning clients from new visitors entirely.
In other words, I don't have an answer (haven't really looked into it) but am tagging this thread to see what folks say.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Linking My Google analytics with visual.ly
Hello, I have a quick question: Is it secure and safe to link my Google Analytics account with Visual.ly here's the link: https://create.visual.ly/graphic/google-analytics I want to create easy-to-understand report from Google Analytics and if you have any experience with this service can you share it with me please. Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Google analytics vs Webmaster tools data
Hi Which is more accurate WT or GA data ? Since GA reporting a KW (thats very recently fallen from page 1 to 3 hence looking into data to find the cause) in the Organic part of Search tab as having generated just 1 visitor over a month (hence presuming fall could be due to low visits from a page 1 result) whilst under Search Engine Optimisation tab (data sourced from WT i think) its reporting 5 click thrus from 150 impressions over same period resulting in a quite good 3.33% CTR (hence wouldn't expect to be the cause of a fall) and what i would have thought GA would report as 5 visits instead of the 1 they do report !? The reason im looking for answer in the data is because no on-page has changed and still scoring a grade A and off page metrics have all improved across the board (apart from small drop in majseo's Trust Flow) such as increased links, RD, Citation Flow, Ref Subnets etc etc etc Cheers Dan
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Google Analytics Custom Reports eMails only one reporting tab
Goog Morning from 18 degrees C mostly cloudy Wetherby UIK 🙂 I'm on a mission to get away from manual reporting and move over to eMailing custom Google analytics reports. Thanks to this tutorail http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2175001/7-Time-Saving-Google-Analytics-Custom-Reports Ive made good progress but ive hit a snag. The snag being when i email the report the recipient only recieves one 1 report tab of data. This causes a problem when you eMail a report that has multiple reporting tabs like this: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/tab-export-custom-problemcopy.jpg So my question is please..."When you eMail a recipient a custom report how can you ensure they receive "All" the reporting tabs data and not just one"? Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Do target underscore blank links adversely effect Google analytics
Good morning from 17 degrees C about to rain again wetherby UK... On this page http://business.leedscityregion.gov.uk/invest/sectors/ there are a number of links that pop open new windows despite being internal links 😞 My question is please... "If an internal link to a site is set to _blank and pops open a new window are there any detrimental affects to google analytics tracking e.g. increased exits etc" Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Keep multiple Google Analytic / Webmaster accounts seperate?
Hi, I have a paranoid suspicion that putting all my websites on one Webmaster / Analytic account will mean any links between my sites won't carry any weight, and Google might consider similar content much more readily if 2 of my sites are in the same market. So I have about 4 different accounts with my main sites split across them. Am I being over paranoid? Do any of you have any problem with all your sites being on the same account?
Reporting & Analytics | | SpecialCase0 -
AW Stats vs Google Analytics
Hey Moz Community, I am looking to get opinions on the best practice for analytics/traffic analysis. From experience I know that AW Stats reads high and Google Analytics reads low for traffic for reason in this article http://www.smartz.com/blog/2009/01/23/analytic-confusion-%E2%80%93-awstats-vs-google-analytics/ It drives me a little nuts how far off both are for some pages. I have one article that shows 100 views (GA) and AW stats shows 5 times that number of views. Any suggestions or systems you recommend? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | johnshearer0 -
Google Analytics Options
A couple of months ago, I read about a new web stats application that is real time but more importantly let's you track user actions on a page (i.e. which buttons were clicked for example). This information would obviously be very helpful in continuing to improve site performance. Anyone have suggestions or know the name of this application? I do not mind paying but am not looking for an enterprise class application.
Reporting & Analytics | | Mont0 -
Does Google Analytics use your data against you?
I couldn't find this question answered anywhere in Q&A, so I apologize if it's a duplicate of another post. I heard, about a year ago on either Web Pro World, or Warrior Forum that Google uses your visitor data in your Google Analytic account to rank your site. Someone said that when they took out the Google code, their site went from the third to the first page within 48 hours. That was then verified over the next couple of weeks by others. Their thought was that regardless of the optimized page and incoming link, if the site wasn't getting visitors, then it would be penalized. Since Google has the data, they would be able to use it. I then started using another, paid, solution - getclicky.com. While I like clicky, there is some info Google has that clicky doesn't, everyone integrates with Google analytics - like SEOmoz, and I'm paying a monthly fee. Now that I'm a part of a community of experts, what do you think? Have you noticed Google ranking you based on your analytics data? Has anyone experienced this, or heard about it before? Because I'd like to go back to using Google analytics. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | DallasBonsai0