Google Analytics serves as an effective instrument for monitoring and analyzing traffic on websites. Nonetheless, there may be occasions when you need to omit specific URL query parameters from your data. This action can be advantageous if your URLs include dynamic parameters that don’t contribute to your analysis, or if you’re trying to eliminate spam traffic.
Why Exclude URL Query Parameters?
Excluding URL query parameters can help you get a more accurate picture of your website’s performance. For example, if you have URLs with dynamic parameters that are not relevant to your analysis, excluding them can help you focus on the data that matters most.
How to Exclude URL Query Parameters
- Log in to your Google Analytics account and navigate to the view you want to edit.
- Click on “Admin” in the top navigation bar and select “Filters” under the “View” column.
- Click on “Create Filter” and give it a name that describes what you want to exclude. For example, “Exclude Dynamic Parameters.”
- Select “Custom” as the filter type and choose “Advanced” from the drop-down menu.
- In the “Filter Pattern” field, enter the URL query parameters you want to exclude. You can use regular expressions to match multiple patterns at once. For example, if you want to exclude all URLs with the parameter “utm_source,” you could enter “.*?utm_source=.*?”
- In the “Output To” field, select “Exclude.” This will remove any sessions that match the filter pattern from your data.
- Click on “Save” to apply the filter to your view. You may need to wait a few hours for the changes to take effect.
Conclusion
Excluding URL query parameters in Google Analytics can help you get more accurate data and focus on the metrics that matter most. By following these steps, you can easily create a filter to exclude unwanted parameters from your data.
