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Hoping someone can help,

I have what seems to be a very basic question regarding Google Analytics and Advanced Segments. I'm working on a University site, and attempting to add a custom segment only to view the "arts" sections of the website so I can get keyword info, referral infom etc specifically about those pages. The URL string is /academics/collegesandschools/arts/(any other subsequent pages). My filter looks like:

Page-Contains-arts (unfortunately I can't post pictures quite yet).

It seems to be filtering out some pages, but it is also returning pages like /academics and /admissions that don't even contain "arts" as part of the URL string. If I type "arts" in the filter bar on the Content section, then it will filter properly, but I can't carry that info over to traffic sources for example.

Am I missing something here? Should I be using some sort of regex? Does it take time to filter everything out? Any help would be useful and appreciated. Thanks!

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Google Analytics Advanced Segmentation queries against sessions, not pageviews.

That means that to create an advanced segment for "pages that start with arts", you're really saying "Show me all the sessions in which someone visited a page that starts with arts." That means it'll include more than just the arts pages.

What you're looking for is report filtering. You can do that in any view.

Or, if you'd like to sequester just the arts section views, you could create a second profile with a custom filter to only show pageviews in that section.

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  • I have the same problem, and "sessions-vs-pageviews" explains it. I was able to get what I want by creating a custom report instead.
    – krubo
    Oct 31, 2012 at 20:26

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