Include or exclude tracking to any location of your Web site
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Written by admin on September 1, 2008 – 10:56 am
Google Analytics gives you the ability to specify and include or exclude tracking to any location of your Web site. This procedure is useful if you want to analyze only specific landing pages, or any other specific area of your Web site.
Also, if your Web site is broken up into multiple categories or themes, you may want to track each of these separately. For example, if you sold cell phone ringtones and wallpapers, applying this filter would allow you to analyze the conversions and goal funnels for each section separately. To do this, you would simply make a new profile for the existing domain, and then apply the filter to track only a certain directory. Repeat this process for each separate directory you want to track.
Despite the fact that aggregate data would be viewable if you were to set only one profile and track the entire domain, you would have to do some digging through the Web site statistics on the Content Drilldown page, which is discussed in the task “Track External Links.” Applying the filter and tracking a directory separately allow you a quick look at the performance of that part of your Web site. Having certain directories sectioned off also allows you to share reports about just that portion of your site, without sharing the information about your entire domain.
Similarly, you can add an additional user to this profile, giving her access only to the directory you want her to see. The Google Analytics directory exclusion filter also gives you a quick way to view reports on incoming traffic sources, as well as external clicks for a particular directory. This information is very useful when negotiating rates with potential advertisers.
For example, being able to accurately report the traffic volume of specific areas of your site allows you to provide prospective advertisers with detailed statistical information, which is vital to maximizing the amount of money you can charge for advertising space.
Although you will likely find tracking a certain directory of your Web site separately useful, you may also find having reports available for your entire domain a good idea, too. For this reason, you should make a new Web site profile whenever you want to track an individual directory. To set up an additional profile, click Add Web site Profile from your main settings page. Select Add a Profile for an Existing Domain and then choose the domain you want to use. After selecting a relevant name, you can then go ahead and apply the appropriate filter to this new copy of your Web site profile.
Try to avoid picking a name for your new profile that leaves room for confusion as to which profile is tracking the full domain and which profile is tracking an individual directory of the site. This becomes important if and when you want to share reports with someone else. Following these rules has the added benefit of minimizing the possibility that someone with restricted analytics access accidentally receives data from restricted sources. Carefully selecting descriptive names in the beginning keeps your directories more organized and may save you time and energy in the long run.
