therouxDown

I know you’re not using Google Analytics like you should.

How do I know this? Of the many, many Analytics accounts I’ve accessed, maybe 5% have set up goals, or even a customized dashboard for that matter. Five percent might be too generous.

The typical Analytics user sets up the account, and every two weeks or so logs in, looks at the blue graphs and goes, “Oh wow, that sure looks spiky.” It’s a valid lifestyle choice, I guess, just don’t expect me not to judge you.

If you’ve not yet made the leap to Analytics-junkie, here’s a quick tip that’s going to get you a lot of bang for your buck: Set up a User Defined Report to Obtain the Full Referrer URL from Google Analytics.

Follow the link to get easy step-by-step instructions (see Method 1). I’ve used this technique with both the urchin.js and ga.js tags without any trouble.

What Does It Do?

Normally, Analytics only provides the domain (& sub-domain, if applicable) of referring pages.

Pretty anemic, huh?

But after applying this ‘hack’ (and I hate to use the word hack to mean ‘clever tip,’ but that’s an entirely different blog post), you’ll see the full URL.

Voilà:

Not bad for 3 minutes of work, eh? Don’t forget to add the User Defined Report to the Google Analytics dashboard after you’re done.

Nota bene: You won’t see anything at first—this filter only works from the moment it’s implemented going forward. Also, don’t worry if you see a lot of “(not set).” In most cases this refers to your “Direct Traffic.”

Edit: Of course it’s possible to see click through on the domain to see the individual pages, but that’s a huge pain, and often there’s probably only one page hiding behind there anyway. And of course you won’t see the stuff after the file extension, like ?user_id=12334?category=unicorns, which is useful for reverse-stalking.