Since the introduction earlier this year of Advanced Segments in Google analytics, I have found a lot of great uses for them.

Some examples include:

 

These segments can be applied to nearly any part of the Google analytics reporting suite, and can even be shown graphically on the main graph.

Since the introduction of Advanced Segments, there has been some questioning of whether this would mean you don't need profiles and filters any more. These were the original ways to do 'advanced segmenting'. You would make a duplicate profile of your account for every different 'segment' you wanted to follow, and Google allowed you up to 50 profiles.

Google Profiles are the second rung under your 'accounts' in your Google Analytics account. A profile can be a new web address, OR it can be the same web address as one you are already tracking but with filters in place to manipulate the data. For example:

Now that there is advanced segmenting within the reporting interface, do you need to do extra profiles and filters? Here is a quick list of differences between them:

Profiles with Filters

• Cannot look at data retrospectively
• Can easily be shared with any user, you just grant them access
• Slightly more complicated to establish
• They may be more accurate. Filters are based on page views, while advanced segments are based on visitors.  So, for example, Advanced segments will ignore all page views connected to a user who has seen restricted pages in their visit, whereas Profiles with filters will acknowledge that visitors behaviour except for the visits to the restricted pages.

Advanced Segments

• Allow you to look at data retrospectively
• Are much simpler to implement, with a better user interface
• Allow more flexibility, allowing more restrictions/requirements per segment.
• While you can't easily allow access to another user, they do have a 'share' URL which you can send to anyone, which will allow them to implement the exact same segment with a click of a button.

I continue to use Profiles and filters for big segments of site traffic I want to follow, things that are important and will continue to be important to the business.

If I want to do retrospective segmenting though, I can use the Advanced Segments function.

A few things to remember when creating profiles with filters

1. Keep at least one version of the original
2. When comparing profile traffic, make sure they are comparing equally, e.g. if you exclude traffic from your business's IP Address from one, then you need to do that to any you are comparing it to.
3. Profiles will only track traffic from the moment they are created, so try and think of ones you want to create as early as possible.
4. If you need to compare certain performance of different profiles, ensure they have the same goals set up.

My new favourite Google analytics report is the navigation report, which you can pull up for any page in your site. What it will do is tell you how people got to that page, and where they went afterwards.

You could spend ages in there clicking on each page, following various paths - it's like a choose your own adventure. You could surprise yourself when you see what paths your customers take.

The report can be found in the content section of Google Analytics. Just choose any of the content reports, for example, Top Content. Then click on which page you want to investigate, and choose 'Navigation Summary' from the right hand side of the screen.

The report will look like this:


These results are for my blog page, and from this we can see that over 90% of the traffic to the blog on that day had come from other pages on the site, it was a landing page only a small number of times. To see where those visitors came from who arrived straight on this page, click on the drop down box next to 'analyze' and choose 'entrance sources'.

What is unusual about the visitors to the blog at this time were that most of them went on to other pages on the site, over 70% of visitors stayed on the site, whereas for many blogs, there is a high bounce rate (people come to read that days story, then leave). This high percentage, plus the high percentage of visitors coming from other pages on the site, insinuates that the blog has been viewed by visitors interested in MooMu Media the business, not just the blog.

When you look at this report for your site, you need to:

1. Identify where people are dropping off at a higher rate, you might want to look at the content and internal links on that page to see how you could retain interest and guide people towards a conversion. But remember, people need to leave the site at some point, you need to identify those pages showing a significantly higher drop off than others.

2. Of the list of 'next pages' for each page, are these the pages where you want people to go? If not, perhaps think about moving the links on your page around to highlight the ones you want them to click on.

3. Of the list of 'previous' pages, do you want those people coming to this page? Do you want to funnel them to a different page?

Basically, you want to understand what navigation paths people are taking, and if they aren't what you want, try and change your site to make them how you want them.

With the announcement of Tony Abbott as the new liberal party leader just hitting the net, I thought I would get onto Twitter and see what the immediate reaction is: Not good.

(42 new tweets since you started searching)

I would do a screen shot of a Twitter search for 'Tony Abbott', but I would have to spend all day blurring out the expletives.

(103 new tweets since you started searching)

With more than 100  new tweets every minute, it is surely one of the hottest topics in Australia, and if Tweeters were a demographic, it looks like the liberals no longer have their vote.

(431 new tweets since you started searching)

The liberals could learn a thing or two from reading the Tweet feed. For example - they need to ensure their new candidate doesn't maintain his 'old fashioned' reputation, as that is one of the biggest worries. There is also concern about his flip-flopping on climate change, and he needs to stop calling women 'girls'.

(492 new tweets since you started searching)