Analytics is Google's powerful stat tracking system. Most domain owners use stat tracking of some sort, but many more on Google Analytics to create visual reports, download XML files and analyze what visitors are doing on their sites. If you do not know what to look for, it's easy to get overwhelmed while you attempt to track the information you are looking for.
Segments can be of great benefit for any users looking to learn specific information about where traffic comes from and how it behaves on a website. Segments different from goals, because goals use defined paths. In other words, for a goal to work, the user has to achieve certain things (like coming from Google, clicking on Link A, registering, and ending by editing their profile).
With segments, you can look at only specific instances, allowing you to better prove theories you have developed on traffic providers / sources / etc.
What is an Advanced Segment
Advanced Segments break your traffic up into specific sources, mediums, keywords, etc. You can use these segments as an overlay to your existing traffic graph or on their own. Like any other segment in analytics, you can change the dates of your query or define which parameters analytics will report to you.
Creating a Segment in Google Analytics
To create an advanced segment in Google Analytics, follow these steps:
- Log into Google Analytics
- Click on Advanced Segments at the top right of your dashboard screen
- "Create a new advanced segment"
- The next screen is where you will add a definition to your statement. Think of statements like questions or questions. For example, all traffic sent to you via the keyword 'Free Software' would be "Search Term // Matches Exactly // 'Free Software'" Segments can query by search term, content title, source, medium etc. Experiment with different options to find the best matches
- You can test your segment with the "Test Segment" button, which will perform a sample search and show you the number of results. Use this to check the accuracy of your queries. All Google Search operators can be used, but I do not recommend them. I suggest narrowing a query down to the simplest ideas.
A Note on Conditions
Conditions are special circumstances you want Analytics to observe when querying for your defined segments. For example, you might not want to know every hit you got for the keyword "Android" but you might want to see queries that contain that word. Seeing which search terms you show up for is the best way to focus on what other content you could develop.