Google Analytics Page Metrics and Redirects

[DonnaDuncan]

Hi All-

Context: A site has been redesigned. Pages were renamed in the process.

Problem: It's very hard to compare before and after metrics because the page URLs are not the same.

Question: Anyone know how to do this in Google Analytics?

I'm hoping there's some simple trick I just don't know about.

D

[DonnaDuncan]

NOTE for anyone reading this Q&A.

I looked at the Google Analytics Solutions Gallery to see if someone had already created a template I could import and modify. No luck.

I could still be missing something, but it looks like a combination of the suggestions above (a customized report and content groupings) might work. That said, Google states "Content Grouping is not retroactive. The Content Groups that you create are valid only from the creation date forward." That means, you need to be proactive and prepare your content groups BEFORE you flip the switch to the new site structure and/or URLs. If you wait till after, the grouping will still work, but it will only include stats from the date you created your groupings moving forward.

I've marked this question as answered. If anyone knows of an easier to implement solution, please chime in.

[DonnaDuncan]

Thanks Ray-pp! I'll look at this as an option as well. May not work. Google says "Content Grouping is not retroactive. The Content Groups that you create are valid only from the creation date forward."

[Ray-pp]

You could also check out the Content Grouping feature. This would allow you to group all your old pages (old url structure) into a category and compare those metrics to the group of new pages.

Google link: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2853423?hl=en

[DonnaDuncan]

Beautiful! Thanks. I'll check it out. Didn't find anything when I did a search so you've possibly saved me a lot of time. I'll let you know.

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hi Donna

I had a similar issue couple of months back re a client that had migrated/changed urls and put pretty much the same question out on Moz Q&A

Samuel Scott very kindly offered me some great guidance, heres a link to the Q&A thread:

http://moz.com/community/q/comparing-user-behaviour-in-ga

Hope this helps ! sorry if not same scenario but sounds similarish so should help

All Best

Dan