Best way to segment data in Google analytics?

Question

I have a web site which has a number of distinct parts, there is a public marketing site, a members area and a admin section for staff, all three are part of the same website and currently the analytics are all merged.

What I need to do is segment the data into three distinct sections, so I can see what is really going on.

What is the best way to do this? three separate accounts? or would it be better to use a custom variable and tag the sections accordingly? or is there another way?

Answer 1

There are two approaches you can take.

First is to create a profile for each part. You will need to create a profile for each part, then make a filter with each profile to only collect data for that part.

For example if the admin area is at example.com/admin:

1. New profile named Admin Area
2. In the new profile, create a filter called Include Admin traffic only
3. Filter type set as Custom filter and Include
4. Filter field as Request URI
5. Filter pattern as ^\/admin\/*$

Repeat for each domain. Data will only be collected once the profile is created.

(Google's explanation)

The second option is to create an Advanced Segment for each part in your master profile. This will show you the visitors that visited each part.

1. From the Reporting tab click Advanced Segments
2. Click New Custom Report
3. Name as Admin Area
4. Include - Page - Matching RegExp - ^\/admin\/*$

It's probably best to do both, a profile for each part and an Advanced Segment in the master profile.