How To Monitor Your Rankings Using Google Analytics Advanced Filter Segmentation

by Patrick Altoft on / 49 responses

This is a guest post by Mike Catalin from SiteMagnify LLC

Google ranking data is passed to logfiles via the referrer string, but this data can also be captured by Google Analytics using Advanced Filters to segment Google Search traffic.

This ranking data parameter (cd=number) is covered by Patrick Altoft in his post on Google Referrer Strings.

There are two very quick ways to go about collecting the referrer data in Google Analytics, one is to collect and report full referrer strings in GA using the User Defined variable which is reported under Visitors then filter for “cd=” with the “Find User Defined Value” search box at the bottom of the report.

The second is to segment all Google Organic Search Data and pass only the search term and cd=position data into the User Defined report.

To collect the Referrer String in the User Defined variable:

  • create a New Profile
  • select add profile for an existing domain
  • select the domain from the drop down
  • title the Profile “Full Referrer Strings”
  • select Country & Time Zone
  • once Profile is created, edit the Profile to add Filters
  • select +Add Filter
  • select Add New Filter for Profile
  • name the filter “Full Referrer Strings”
  • select Custom Filter from the Filter Type drop-down
  • select the Advanced radio button
  • for Field A -> Extract A, select Referral from the drop-down
  • in the form field enter: (.*)
  • leave Field B -> Extract B empty
  • for Output To -> Constructor, select User Defined from the drop-down
  • in the form field enter: $A1
  • enter the following choices for the remaining radio buttons:
  • Field A required is Yes
  • Field B required is No
  • Override Output Field is Yes
  • Case Sensitive is No
  • Save Changes

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To collect the Keyword and cd= parameter value in the User Defined variable for all Google Search traffic:

  • -create a New Profile
  • -select add profile for an existing domain
  • -select the domain from the drop down
  • -title the Profile “Google Organic SERPs”
  • -select Country & Time Zone
  • -once Profile is created, edit the Profiles to add Filters
  • -will have to create a total of 3 Filters for this segment

Filter to Select only SEO Organic Traffic

  • -select +Add Filter
  • -select Add New Filter for Profile
  • -name the filter “Organic Search Traffic”
  • -select Custom Filter from the Filter Type drop-down
  • -select the Include radio button
  • -for Filter Field, select Campaign Medium from the drop-down
  • -in the Filter Pattern form field enter: organic
  • -leave Case Sensitive as No
  • -Save Changes

Filter to Select only Google Search Traffic

  • -select +Add Filter
  • -select Add New Filter for Profile
  • -name the filter “Google Search”
  • -select Custom Filter from the Filter Type drop-down
  • -select the Include radio button
  • -for Filter Field, select Referral from the drop-down
  • -in the Filter Pattern form field enter: (google)\.[a-z]+
  • -leave Case Sensitive as No
  • -Save Changes

Filter to Extract Search Term and cd= Value

  • -select +Add Filter
  • -select Add New Filter for Profile
  • -name the filter “Full Referrer Strings”
  • -select Custom Filter from the Filter Type drop-down
  • -select the Advanced radio button
  • -for Field A -> Extract A, select Campaign Term from the drop-down
  • -in the form field enter: (.*)
  • -for Field B -> Extract B, select Referral from the drop-down
  • -in the form field enter: (\?|&)(cd)=([^&]*)
  • -for Output To -> Constructor, select User Defined from the drop-down
  • -in the form field enter: $A1 | click detail: $B3
  • -enter the following choices for the remaining radio buttons:
  • -Field A required is Yes
  • -Field B required is Yes
  • -Override Output Field is Yes
  • -Case Sensitive is No
  • -Save Changes

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Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3, a Leeds SEO & Digital Agency specialising in SEO, Web Design, Development & Social Media.

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Comments

Read the 24 comments below, or add your own!

April 23, 2009 at 4:33pm

Excellent guest post. Do you have a screenshot as to how this would look as an end result or did I miss something?

Sphunn

Cheers,
Glen

Reply

April 23, 2009 at 10:07pm

Greetings Mike! I enjoyed the step by step directions. Some of Google people didn’t know that they can do this.
Patrick, you can add this post to your all-time favorite list.
With respect,
Mark.

Reply

April 23, 2009 at 10:08pm

Great post, but you got the parameter wrong. Its r=

Check out the google documentation…

http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/52/asr_reference.html

Its in the tables.

Reply

April 23, 2009 at 10:50pm

Great post, I wonder is there anyway to seperate the traffic that comes through Google Products using advanced filter segmentation.

Closest I have come is someone stating that create a custom querystring in the xml url to highlight that it came from a feed listing – but tbh, I’d rather something more cleaner, to be able to distinguish conversions better.

Paul

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April 23, 2009 at 10:59pm

very intersting, thanks for this information.

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April 23, 2009 at 11:27pm

I guess ‘click detail: 1′ in the last screenshot is the important thing.

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April 24, 2009 at 1:27am

I’m missing the need for distinct profiles
Would adding these filters to the same profile cause a problem or just add this data to a single set or reports?

Thanks

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April 24, 2009 at 2:12am

Great post! This is really handy, very detailed. Thanks..^_^

-Melanie
-Sell Anything Like Crazy

Reply

August 31, 2011 at 11:04pm

I agree with that. Thanks for this article…little bit old but still very usefull for a lot of people. Including me :)

Reply

Luke
April 24, 2009 at 9:37am

Quality!!! I want more posts like this!!

Good work!

Reply

April 24, 2009 at 11:53am

Has anyone else noticed that Google has reverted to using the old system?

DM

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April 26, 2009 at 10:26pm

amazing post…i’ll let u know how it goes…
Jorge

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May 3, 2009 at 9:58pm

Awesome post, awesome trick – I’ll be implementing on a new profile this week.

@Paul The danger of implementing a filter like this on your core profile is that all data moving forward will be filtered – there’s no way to retroactively remove the filter (that’s the way advanced filters work in GA). If you make a mistake, for example, and end up filtering important data you can’t get it back.

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May 7, 2009 at 7:36pm

Thanks for the detailed breakdown on how to set this up. Does the data have to be in the user defined report or is there a way to show the data in the main keyword report in GA?

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Victor Aroma
September 19, 2009 at 9:10pm

Nice article!!

-Victor Aroma

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John
October 9, 2009 at 4:42am

I’m using this service to monitor my website’s rank – http://monitor.mazecore.com . They provide position and uptime monitoring with alerts, but rank monitoring on free account is enough for me. I recommend this service with free tariff

Reply

Mike
October 10, 2009 at 12:12pm

I’m using this service to monitor my website’s position – http://monitor.mazecore.com . They provide rank and uptime monitoring with alerts, but position monitoring on free account is enough for me. I recommend this service with free tariff for your website.

Reply

December 15, 2009 at 4:33am

Thanks for the good post. I never knew I could do this on Google. I will definitely have the time monitoring my rankings. It’s one of the nicest advice for today.

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December 18, 2009 at 7:40am

Really nice and effective way to track you ranking and users. I will surely gonna apply this setting. Thanks for sharing :)

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January 5, 2010 at 1:53pm

Google analytic is one of the worlds best tracking online software. i love it

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March 1, 2010 at 10:15pm

You have to check up these Google Analytics tips

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May 13, 2010 at 8:38am

Good Post boss.yesterday i create my Google Analytical account and include that feature in my account. thank

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October 21, 2010 at 4:48pm

This worked great, BUT i have a large number that says (not set), ow do I define those?

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April 25, 2011 at 6:53am

Mastering the advanced filter segmentation is must for SEO.

Reply

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