A Few Enhancements You Might like

Using filter and profiles appropriately will ignite your data and let you see things in your reports you would not otherwise see. Below is a list of my personal favorites. There are thousands more if you look around. I remind you this data comes from my own reporting system, that’s why you are seeing my notation icons.

Legend

Not Applicable

Task Complete

Task Partially Complete

Filters

Keyword Cleaning

See document: cleaning broad match

Allow Keyword Cleaning and Referring Domain Analysis.

Keywords Trigger Ads

See document: exact-keywords-google-analytics

What Keywords Trigger what Ads?

SEO Rankings

See document: track-seo-rankings-google-analytics

Track SEO rankings with Google Analytics.

5 Top Filters

See document: 5-must-have-google-analytic-filters

Include My Site Traffic

Exclude Internal Traffic

Force URI Case to Lower

Display Full Referral Names

Remove URL Root

Paid Search Only

See document: custom-filters-for-ga-part-3d

Includes paid traffic only.

Cascading Custom Advanced Filters

See document: filters-for-ga-part-4c-cascading-custom-advanced-filters

Keyword – source – Ad Title – pages/visitor – conversion rate.

Cascading Custom Advanced Filters

Google Custom Search Engine

See document: case

Analyze Internal Search

See document: analyze internal search data

Analytics added to Google Custom Search- Add 20% to conversion

Google Analytics with Google Docs

See document: integrate-google-analytics-with-google

Integrates Google Analytics with Google Docs

Report Enhancer

See document: google analytics report enhancer

Reveal the new Goal Conversion tab, now with raw number of conversions for each goal as well as goal revenue shows.

Block IP Address

See document: ip block google analytics filter

Block internal Traffic

Traffic filters

To be applied appropriately to profiles.

Setup Steps

Analytics Only

Steps

Your Account Has Been Created

Create a Google Analytics Account

Completed

Website URL: http://www.domainname.com

Default page [?]: index.htm

Time zone [?]: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time – Toronto

Exclude URL Query Parameters:

Applied Cost Data: Cost source from Adwords for user 000-000-000

E-Commerce Website: No

Site Search [?]: Don’t Track Site Search

What Type of Website do you have?

There are only a few different types of websites really…

* Ecommerce

* Brand lift

* Lead Generation

* Blog, Social Platform

Additionally there are basic coding languages that are supported by Google Analytics such as html, .htm, .shtml or script-generated pages like.cgi, .asp, .cfm, etc. Plain-text pages can also be tracked along with PDF files (virtual pageviews) and event interactions (event tracking).

Your Website is:

Ecommerce
Brand lift
Lead Generation
Blog, Social Platform

Identify special attention elements

Tracking your Website Effectively with Google Analytics

For tracking your website effectively with Google Analytics, there is a strategy involved that very few understand. That strategy starts with taking a close look at the implications before you begin code integration. Sometimes your tracking strategy cannot be executed the way you have planned due to special attention site characteristics.

Your Site Special Requirements

Cross Domain Linking- Cross domain linking requires modifications to the tracking code. Additionally you will need to modify any forms that post data across domains as well as cross domain linking.

Track Flash Goal Pages- Recording actions as virtual page views are the way to track flash pages that are a part of the goal funnel.

Tracking Pages in a Frame Set- Frame based websites will show inflated page views.

Event Tracking Example – Tracking browser based events with flash files can lead to very telling analysis on how others interact with your flash designs.

Tagging Links – Tag your links to track them through your optimized Google Analytics configuration. How do email blasts convert? What about you’re paid traffic from Facebook, Yahoo!, or MSN? Tag your links and you see in all in Analytics. Tagging your links is NOT mandatory but highly recommended to improve marketing efforts.

Ecommerce Tracking- Ecommerce sales can be tracked with Google Analytics. Modifications are required to the checkout page in your Ecom solution. Then your Google Analytics account needs to be set up properly (optimized) for your online sales process.

Joining AdWords to Analytics – This is an important step to plan on before we even get started because it effects to way we register and configure your Google Analytics account.

Blocking IP Addresses- Keep your website traffic as pure as possible. Block IP addresses that should not count as true site visits.

Profiles Goals and Filters

Goals We are Tracking

Lead Generation
Ecommerce Sales
High value page views
Newsletter sign ups
Pages Per Visit
File downloads
RSS Feed Clicks
Brand lift

Screen Shot of Goals and Filters

Create Profiles

For each website we create profiles that are visibly date stamped.

Note: If you create a “paid only” profile I recommend using a filter excluding all traffic but paid traffic.

When you complete profile creation you should see something like this in your settings page.

1) Master d/m/y- Optimized, fully configured and filtered profile. This profile is the one we Use for reporting (excludes paid traffic if applicable).
2) Paid Only d/m/y- Includes only PPC Traffic. Goals and filters applied.
3) Raw d/m/y – No filters with goals configured.
4) Sandbox d/m/y – Goals and filters applied. This filter is used for testing advanced Expressions and filters.
5) Print Only d/m/y- When you want to tracking printing as a separate channel.

Profile Configuration

Determine best match type for goals- exact, head or regular expressions

Choose Goal Match Type

Match types are used for different reasons. The most common is head match. The most advance is regular expression.

Head Match
Regular Expression
Exact Match

Blocking IP Addresses in Google Analytics

IP Addresses to block

In order to track how real visitors interact with your website it is important that we exclude any traffic that results in non-legitimate visitors accessing your website. Typically we block our team’s IP address because we are working on your website. We are not a valid visitor for tracking purposes. The truth is you are not a valid visitor either; therefore your IP address(es) should also be blocked.

To get the most accurate tracking data we will need to block all IP addresses that shouldn’t count as legitimate visitors. Your data is more actionable when it includes real site visitors.

Go to this website

Send Client Email for IP Address Blocking

Set Homepage for Cleaner Reporting

Set Default Homepage

Here’s Your Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC)

Get tracking code from Google interface

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);

document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google- analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

try {

var pageTracker = gat. getTracker(“UA-0000000- 21″);

pageTracker. trackPageview();

} catch(err) {}</script>

Plan Code Installation

There are a few different ways the code can be effectively integrated.

The method Used on Your site was

Server side Include
Manually on each page
Plugins

Code Implementation- Non ecommerce

Your Custom Tracking Code

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);

document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

try {

var pageTracker = gat. getTracker(“UA-0000000″);

pageTracker. trackPageview();

} catch(err) {}</script>

Integrated on all public pages

Install code on web pages to be tracked

Code Implementation- Ecommerce

Not applicable.

Set User/Client Access

Specify What users Require Access to Google Analytics

Client must have an email address that subscribes to Google products.

1) User email: email@dominname.com

2) User email: email@dominname1.com

Site Scan to Confirm Installation

Verification of Google Analytics Data Integrity

There are troubleshooting procedures to follow and tools that can quickly find any tracking or reporting problems.

Test installation

Logging Data

AdWords/Analytics

Steps

Does Not Apply

Goals Configured

Pages/visit

Time on site

This concludes my rather long post on the steps taken to optimize the set up of tracking code. There are other set up templates that we use depending on what the client really wants (goals).