I got a few emails about the Google Analytics part of this post on Mobile SEO that I thought it might be useful to break it out as a separate post.  So here you go:

If you are a Google Analytics user I recommend setting up an Advanced Segment that filters reports by visitors who are classified as Mobile. Here’s how:

  1. Click on the “Advanced Segments” link on the lower left hand side of the Google Analytics navigation
  2. Click on “Create a new custom segment” at the top of the page
  3. Under the “Dimensions” section click on “Visitors”
  4. Drag the green “Mobile” rectangle into the “dimension or metrics” box.  Make sure the “Condition” equals “Matches Exactly” and the “Value” equals “Yes”
  5. Name the segment “Mobile”, test and save
  6. Now you can view any report in Google Analytics with only mobile user data simply by choosing “Mobile” from the Advanced Segment menu at the top of the page.  Cool Tip: I also like to create a “No Mobile” advanced segment so that I can easily compare the different user behaviors.
  7. You can also create similar reports for different phones, mobile browsers and operating systems (e.g. iPhone v. Android)  if you want to really drill down into this data.

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10 Response Comments

  • Monte Huebsch  January 24, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    How can you do the same thing for visitors from Google Places? Thanks Andrew and Happy New Year

  • Brian Hager  January 24, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    Very useful Google Analytics tip. Thanks for posting.

  • Steve  January 31, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    As someone who uses GA extensively a very useful tip. Mobile data is crucial these days. Many thanks.

  • Sunny  February 3, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    I asked my client – why don’t we build a website for mobile phones ? Then my client asked – how many visitors we are getting from mobile, I said – I have no idea, he gave me 1hr to search on it – if I can classify visitors, we will go.

    And bingo ! here I go, it took 10mins for me to show the diff.

    Cheers Andrew. Awesome tip.

  • sunil singh  February 23, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Beautiful ideas 🙂 for setting mobile segment in the google analytics.

  • Ejvind  February 23, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    Thanks Andrew – very helpful. I hadn’t seen that in Analytics.

  • Lyka Winnett  July 4, 2011 at 12:15 am

    Nice Tips. Nowadays, a lot of people are using mobile when they search online. And for this, creating a Mobile Report in GA is necessary to track or monitors your visitors who use mobile phones.

  • otobong  March 21, 2012 at 2:39 am

    What if i manually add the analytics tracking code in my mobile site?

  • Fiona  February 5, 2013 at 8:36 am

    Would you have an up to date version for the new Google interface? I’m struggling to work it out! Thanks

    • Andrew Shotland  February 5, 2013 at 8:56 am

      It’s pretty simple Fiona:

      1. Go to Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic
      2. Open the Advanced Segments menu at the top and under Default Segments, select Mobile Traffic and voila!