Here is a very brief tutorial for anyone who needs to filter reports in an Analytics profile. For example, if you find yourself repeatedly clicking on the “Advanced Filter” link on the bottom of reports to remove traffic from brand keywords, geographic locations, landing pages, or any other metric, then this tutorial is for you.
Google Analytics gives you two options to filter reports:
- You can filter an entire Profile
- You can filter within a Profile using Advanced Segments
In this article I’m going to talk about Advanced Segments and specifically how to create a report to show all of your non-brand keyword traffic, goals, and revenue.
The most basic method is to run your keyword report by clicking Traffic Sources > Keywords and then use the “Advanced Filter” link to type in all of your brand keyword variations. If you’re running this report multiple times a week or month then it’ll quickly become a nightmare to repeat those steps.
The alternative method is to create an Advanced Segment by clicking on the “Advanced Segments” link under My Customizations in the left column. Next you’ll click the “Create new custom segment” link in the upper right hand corner and you’ll see the segment builder screen.
In my example I’m filtering out brand keywords so I’ll select Traffic Sources > Keywords in the left column and drag the Keywords box into the rectangle in the middle of the screen. Then select the condition “Does not contain” and type in your brand keyword term as the Value. If you only want to filter one keyword then you’re done. Just give your new segment a name and click “Create Segment.”
However, if you need to filter more than one keyword, then you’ll need to repeat this process several times by adding an “OR” or an “AND” statement. An “OR” statement simply tells Google you want to display data if one of the statements is true. An “AND” statement tells Google to display data if all of the statements are true. Since we’re filtering out all brand keywords we want to use the “AND” statement.
So next we’ll click “Add ‘and’ statement’ and repeat the process of adding Keyword conditions and values. Once you’ve added all your brand keywords, then you may want to add additional statements like Visitors > zero, Revenue > zero, or maybe Goal Completions > zero. Then when you’re done click “Create Segment” and finally click on the name of your segment to start using it.
Now when you navigate to the Keywords report (Traffic Sources > Keywords), you’ll see all of your non brand traffic data and any other filters you may have used. You’ll also see a grey bar across the top of the screen and the name of the Advanced Segment in the upper right hand corner.
To exit out of your Advanced Segment, click on the name in the upper right hand corner, uncheck the box to the left of your segment name, and click Apply.
That’s it. This little trick has saved me a ton of time and I hope it will help you out as well. If you have any more Advanced Segment tips, please post them in the comments below.
