May 8, 2007

Jesper Rønn-Jensen, a usability specialist who writes for one of the best blogs on UI and web standards, takes a look at the new Google Analytics interface. Jesper's still a little concerned about the number of clicks it takes to show you referring URLs down to the referral path.

We've had the chance to work with the new interface for a couple of month and I have to assure Jesper and others that it is now a bit easier to find this information. Now, on the new Referring Site report, instead of clicking on the now-missing Analysis Options icon (the little purple guy over to the left of each line item) and choosing Content from the dropdown, you just click on the referring site. This immediately shows you all referral paths from that specific domain. Very handy, in my opinion.

Check out some screenshots after the jump.

Personally, I see the benefit in segmenting your traffic by each referring site. I want at least one click between referral site and referral path. If you'd rather everything show up on the Referring Sites report, you can use a couple of Advanced Filters to just consolidate Campaign Source and Campaign Content for referrals. Here's filter one and filter two.

Your Referring Sites report might be a little messier this way, but the benefit is that you can apply these filters to a unique profile, and just use that one for referring path analysis.

Anyway, hope this helps! As per usual, let me know in the comments if this helps or hinders.

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Posted by Michael Harrison, Analytics and Optimization Specialist at 12:22 PM

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