This post is part of an ongoing series about getting the most out of Google Analytics. If you’d like to start with the basics, read Intro to Google Analytics or Understanding your Audience through Analytics. Or, check out all of My Posts on Google Analytics.
Don’t be dismayed by the naming, Google Analytics advanced segments are really easy to use! They’re a simple way to segment your data and get more out of the reports you already use. A lot of people miss that they’re there (or think that Advanced means that they’re only for advanced users). Take a look at a few examples and you’ll see how easy and powerful this feature is.
On most reports in Google Analytics, you’ll see a button for Advanced Segments right under the title of the report. Just click that button and you’ll see a list of check boxes.
These are segments that Google Analytics gives you by default that can be applied to different reports. For example, you can take a chart of average visit duration and segment it into New Visitors and Returning Visitors, and see an interesting comparison on the engagement of your repeat traffic versus new traffic.
Or if you’re looking at page load times, you can segment them into all visits and mobile device visits, which can be useful for mobile optimization.
Another useful way to use Advanced Segments for mobile optimization is to look at your report of top content and segment into mobile traffic versus all traffic. You might see some pages have a much higher bounce rate for mobile devices than users on a full computer. Maybe those pages need some tweaks to make the experience better for mobile visitors.
The Advanced Segments that are there for you by default are:
- All visits
- New visitors
- Returning visitors
- Paid search traffic
- Non-paid search traffic
- Search traffic
- Direct traffic
- Referral traffic
- Visits with conversions
- Visits with transactions
- Mobile traffic
- Tablet traffic
- Non-bounce visits
You can use up to 4 segments at once. The combinations are endless, but it doesn’t take any more effort than clicking a check box on and off. So, step out of your box and see how you can use advanced segments on one of your favorite reports.
By Alissa Ruehl on Apr 11, 2013
Tagged: Analytics data data mining Google Analytics Non-Profit nonprofit web analytics