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Track Google Plus Referrals In Google Analytics!
By Navneet Kaushal
Expert Author
Article Date: 2011-07-27
With the ever increasing Google +'s membership figures wouldn't it be great to be able to track the referrals in Google+ using Google Analytics? This could enable you to get a clear picture of the source of the traffic to you.
As successfully demonstrated by Andrew Shotland, he "adapted (aka "ripped off") this great post from Sebastien Page" who in turn gives "full credit" to Ruben Yau.
Following are the steps adapted:
"Go to your Google Analytics account and click on Filter Manager > Add Filter, and enter the following information:
1) Filter Name: Full Referrer (or whatever you want to call it)
Filter Type: Custom Filter
Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Referral (.*)
Field B -> Extract B: leave blank
Output To -> Constructor: User Defined $A1
Field A Required: Yes
Field B Required: No
Override Output Field: Yes
Case Sensitive: No
It should look like this:"
2) Now, when you go on the dashboard, in the left-hand navigation, click on the 'Visitors'. By doing so, you will see the "User Defined" option. It is this report which tracks the URL's full referring.
NB: Please do not panic if the report shows up with nothing at first. Allow Google to take sometime before it starts populating your data.
3) Now, click the "advanced" filter option which sits right next to the report search box.
It is further suggested:
4) "Create two "Dimension" filters including "google" and "url?sa". "url?sa" is the identifying element of Google Plus referring URLs."
5) And last but certainly not the least, on clicking the 'Apply' button, you will have the full URL.
So, there you have it! If you didn't already know about it, start seeing the full referral URLs be it for your Google + page or any other, get hacking and tracking!
Comments
About the Author:
Nav is the founder and CEO of Page Traffic, a premier search engine company
known for its assured SEO service, web design and development, copywriting and full time SEO professionals.
Navneet has wide experience in natural search engine optimization, internet
marketing and PPC campaigns. He is a prolific writer and his articles can be
found in the "Best Articles" section of many websites and article banks. As
a search engine analyst , he has over 9 years of experience and his
knowledge is in application here.
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