Google Analytics - Non-branded Search Phrases?

How to do it? Support is giving me the cash shoulder.

[peterdaly]

For well known brand sites, a primary KPI I use is non-branded search traffic. This is the search traffic where the searcher does not use a company brand or product name. (There could be any number of terms we for which we want to exclude all traffic.)

I currently use WebTrends with a custom report (and filter) that excludes a traffic from all search terms where any terms from a list is present.

GA has an exclude option, but as far as I can tell, you can only exclude one term at a time. I need to be able to exclude visitors using a list of terms, not just one.

Can I accomplish this using GA? As an added bonus, it would be very helpful to be able to save the resulting report in a way it can be re-run without manually setting the exclude parameter again.

I need to establish if GA is acceptable for our establishment of KPI baselines. Google Support has been no help.

[peterdaly]

I'll (at least partially) answer my own question. You can enter more than one term into the exclude box by putting a pipe (¦) between the terms.

[epistable]

Hi peterdaly,

You can separate the excluded terms like you mentioned with a pipe between them and then add that report to your dashboard. That should make it so that the report is "saved" and then you can get back to it by clicking on it in the dashboard, no?

Another option would be to create a duplicate profile and add filters to it to show this information. If you do a Google search for "duplicate profiles analytics" and click on the first result, you'll see a official Google blog posting explaining how to set up the duplicate profiles. You can then create an "Include" filter on that profile. You'd want to create this filter on the field "Campaign Medium" and type "(organic)" in the filter field. Then you'd want to create an "Exclude" filter on "Campaign Term" that included all of the different branded terms you'd want to exclude, with pipes between em. Voila! A nice profile that includes only non-branded search terms for you to explore.

Hopefully someone will jump in and correct my if any of this is wrong.

Cheers,

epistable

[peterdaly]

epistable,

I just implemented this, and will see shortly (once data starts coming in) if it works.

I can't thank you enough. Welcome to WebmasterWorld...you are wise well beyond your post count.

:-)

[epistable]

Thanks for the welcome! Let me know if it doesn't work out.

[peterdaly]

Works great. I'm amazed this general concept is so poorly documented and supported.