Beginner Blogger

Want better quality Google Analytics data? With analytics filters (or Advanced Segments they call them) you can add filters enhance the way you view data.

Personally – I view my site a lot to make sure it’s working, to check comments and generally just to make sure everything is running smoothly. When I view my analytics data – especially since I don’t get thousands of visits a day (yet )- the visits I personally make on my site can make a big difference on how I analyse the data.

Now some of you may say – well that’s easy – just create a filter to remove your IP address. Unfortunately a lot of computers these days have a dynamic IP address meaning every time you log onto the internet you will have a different IP address than you had before. So it’s not as simple as removing yourself based on IP address.

My solution is to create an analytics filter to get rid of my CITY. The only problem with this solution is that I will be removing potential real visits from my home town that I won’t be able to track if I use this filter. (Also keep in mind you can change between a filter that you’ve created and go back to the default with a click of a button, so you don’t lose anything by applying these filters)

Another problem may be that you’re getting a lot of visitors coming to your site that don’t even visit your site for 1 whole second! I’ve created an analytics filter for that as well.

Below are the two filters I use – Removing my home town/city of Brisbane, Australia and only showing visits when they’re at the site for more than 0 seconds. I’ve also added in how to combine the two.

Analytics Filter – Remove Home Town/City

1. Log into Google Analytics

2. Click to Advanced Segments and click on + Create new custom segment
3. Under Dimensions (in green) click visitors to show a drop down menu

4. Drag City into the dotted box where it says ‘dimension or metric’
5. On the Conditions drop down box select ‘Does not match exactly’ This is a very important step and can sometimes be missed. You want to see the results where people DO NOT come from your home town (i.e. yourself).

6. Type in the name of your city. In my case it is ‘Brisbane’.
7. Name your segment. I’ve named mine ‘Visits not from Brisbane’
8. Click the Create Segment button. That’s it you’re done!

You can now go back to your dashboard and in the top right position there is a drop down menu All Visits. Under the drop down you should find your newly created advanced segment. Click on this, then apply to see how many visitors you get excluding the ones from your city.

Simple, right!

Now I’ll show you how to only display quality visits when users are on your site for longer than 0 seconds.

Analytics Filter – User On Site More Than 0 Seconds

1. Log into Google Analytics
2. Click to Advanced Segments and click on + Create new custom segment
3. Under Metrics (in blue) click Site Usage to show a drop down menu

4. Drag Time on Page into the dotted box where it says ‘dimension or metric’
5. On the Conditions drop down box select ‘Greater than’ This should already be the default option.
6. Type in 0 as the Value

7. Name your segment. I’ve named mine ‘Time on site greater than 0′
8. Click the Create Segment button. That’s it you’re done!

To see if it worked properly – go back to your dashboard once again and in the top right position there is a drop down menu All Visits. Under the drop down you should find your newly created advanced segment. Click on this, then apply to see how many visitors you get excluding which are staying on your site for longer than 0 seconds.

Analytics Filter – Combine the two filters into one

1. Follow the steps above, when you get to adding the second condition click the Add “and” statement link and repeat the steps for Analytics Filter – User On Site More Than 0 Seconds in the new slot (or the Analytics Filter – Remove Home Town/City depending on which one you already have up)
2. Name your segment and click Create Segment. That’s it – you’ve just combined 2 basic filters into one more complex filter!

By placing this analytics filter I feel there is a much more accurate measure of what your users are doing on your site. You can guarantee all your own visits won’t be counted and you’ll actually get tracking data based on users that are actually using your site.

There could be many reasons why Google Analytics shows visits at 0 seconds. I’m not 100% sure but they could be search engine spiders crawling your site or bots of some other sort. Perhaps people are visiting your site when they didn’t mean to and close it before the Google Analytics code could load properly. What do you think?

I hope you’ve found this helpful and I hope you apply these analytic filters to your site to get a better measure of what your users are up to.

Edit:
Turns out you can actually share filters! Let me know if these work for you (you will have to change your city to wherever you live)

No visits from x city

Time on site greater than 0 seconds

No visits from x city and time on site greater than 0 seconds

I would urge you to try out your own filters so you’re at least getting your hands dirty a little bit. Don’t under estimate having experience! I would love to see what handy filters you have come up with. If you do – let us know in the comments below!

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This is a guest blog post by Nicholas Cardot from Site Sketch 101 Having just resigned from full-time work myself I understand that running a successful blog while working full-time can be hard work. Nick shares his experiences…

Blogging can be a difficult task.  In fact, those who tell you that you can compete with the top bloggers in the blogosphere without having to work very hard are sadly mistaken.  It takes hard work.  It takes a lot of writing.  It takes dedication to provide amazing content to your readers in every article.

And truth be told, most people aren’t full-time bloggers.  We don’t all have the luxury of enjoying a full-time income from our blogging efforts.  We have to work and sometimes that means long hours.

I currently serve as an Infantryman in the United States Army.  I work an average of 60 or more hours every week and I maintain an amazing blog (in my opinion) called Site Sketch 101.  It’s not always easy to balance them both, but it’s fun and it can be done.

Let me share with you some of the things that I do to help me write, design, interact and work a job.

1.  Always carry a pen and paper with you.

You never know where you’re going to be when you think of any idea that you can use as the topic of an article and with your time limited you can’t afford to forget it.  If you think of an idea, write it down right away.

2. Schedule time to work on your blog.

I don’t usually sleep in very late on Saturday morning.  I get up, get a glass of milk, and I get to work writing my articles for the coming work.  I use the ideas that I came up with throughout the week and I put them into articles.

3.  Don’t get overwhelmed.

If you feel like you’re too stressed out then take a break.  I blog because it’s a way for me to relax.  I enjoy it.  I love interacting with my readers.  I love helping people grow and develop their skills.  I love writing and expressing myself.  I have fun doing it.  Find a way to make it fun.  Enjoy what you do.  And when necessary, take breaks.

It is possible to operate an amazing blog and work a full-time job.  Don’t think that your limited by your situation.  You’re not.  You can accomplish amazing things.

But don’t stop learning and growing.  Those of us who work full-time have a major disadvantage.  We have less time to learn and develop ourselves as bloggers than those without jobs.  But that is no excuse.  Let’s continually strive to be the best that we can be.

Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping people learn how to blog with awesome content, brilliant designs and commanding influence.

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