Editor's Note: This post is the first of a regular series of guest-authored posts with our Google Analytics Authorized Consultants , who are certified by Google to offer support and consultation to Google Analytics customers. LunaMetrics Learn how to use Google Analytics from set-up to analysis at their one-day training , "Getting ahead with Google Analytics," on October 3 in Washington, D.C. Sign up here , and read on to learn a useful technique for seeing segments of traffic. In Google Analytics , it's easy to isolate segments of your traffic such as paid traffic, or organic traffic, new visitors or returning, Firefox users or Safari users using a specific report (such as New vs. Returning) or the Dimension drop down menu within reports. Obviously, you want to see how different visitors behave and how your online campaigns and search engine optimization efforts are paying off. But sometimes, you may want to really be able to inspect this data easily within all Google Analytics reports for a website. You may have a question that Google Analytics answers for the whole site, but you want to know it for only a specific segment. In that case, set up a few profiles which filter down to these segments for your site.Experiment using different profiles , detailed how to create duplicate profiles for your data manipulation enjoyment. Go crazy with filters! :-) Since you can create 50 profiles in a Google Analytics account, multiple profiles are a good way to view your data through different lenses and isolate certain segments. leave at least one "real" profile where you don't filter at all . That way, you can work on the others without making mistakes on the data that you are relying on to guide your website decisions. Not sure if that Regular Expression or filter are going to capture exactly the right data? Set them up on your sandbox profile and see if they work. Some of the other Google Analytics Authorized Consultants told us they set up a sandbox profile for every "real" profile whenever they configure a new customer's account, so that both profiles have the same data history.Profiles enable you to test theories. Maybe you don't understand why your visitors are behaving in a certain way that shows up in your "real" profile -- but have five potential answers. Set up a profile that includes only yourself, using filters . Then try all the strange things your customers may have done and see if your sandbox profile will duplicate the real profile.No Filters : Profile with zero filters. Use this for troubleshooting. Only Direct : Include filter for the field "Campaign Source" only equaling the pattern "direct" visitors Only Internal : Use an include filter which will include only traffic from internal IP ranges on IP address. Only New Visitors : Include filter on the field "Visitor Type" equal to "new" Only Organic : Include filter where the filter field is on "Campaign Medium" and the pattern is "organic" Only Paid Search : Include filter on "Campaign Medium" equaling the pattern "ppc|cpc" Only Referral : Include filter on "Campaign Medium" equaling "referral" Only Returning Visitors : Include filter on "Visitor Type" equaling "returning" Organic And Paid : Include filter combining the above two filters for "Only Organic" and "Only Paid Search" to include all search engine traffic Overall : All traffic except filter out internal IP ranges using the "Exclude all traffic from an IP address filter ."the training in Washington, D.C. on October 3.Written by Robbin Steif and John Henson, LunaMetrics, with Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics team
