Cleanup your URLs with Search and Replace Filters

If your site has dynamic URLs then you might have a hard time making sense out of your data in Google Analytics.

If for any reason you cannot convert your dynamic URLs to friendly URLs…search and replace filters are the answer!

The screenshot below demonstrates the nightmare some people might experience when they view content reports.

In order to make the URL readable, we have to identify the parameters that we want to change. In our above example the URL contains three parameters: departmentID, CategoryID, and ProductID. We first create a “search and replace” filter for each department, category, and product. Then we replace each dynamic parameter with easy-to-read text.

Create the “Search & Replace” Filters

Filter# 1

Filter# 2

Filter# 3

Now apply all created filters to a test profile and verify data accuracy before applying to your regular profiles.

Your content reports will now look like this:

Note:

We do not advice using “Search & Replace” approach on e-commerce sites because you will have a very large number of filters.
The easiest way to never have to deal with dynamic URL addresses is by using friendly URLs at the development stage.
You can use tools such as Apache’s mod_rewrite to present clean URLs to both your visitors and your web analytics application.
Clean URLs will have additional benefits such as helping with your SEO campaign and improving conversion rates..

Allaedin Ezzedin

VP Analytics Engineering Allaedin wisely guides friends, family and colleagues with honesty and care. He is a long time digital analytics industry veteran leading Cardinal Path’s analytics team with over a decade of experience as a digital marketing and senior analytics consultant.