If you know what you’re doing and are just looking for the right regex, this is for you:
([^\?]+)(\?.*)?
Then use $A1 to output the URL without its query string.
Head to http://regexr.com/39o0i if you want to tinker. Otherwise, read on…
They’re the bane of any Google Analytics user’s life. Query string parameters.
For the uninitiated, query string parameters are:
www.test.com/?this=bit
They’re fine for telling your server bits of information, like which product you’re looking at or what you’ve just searched for, but in your Google Analytics reports they can be quite troublesome because they create separate pageviews, e.g.
Would each show as a separate URL and page view in GA (totalling 3 different views of the same /basket page). Sometimes this is fine, it’s exactly the behaviour you want (www.test.com/products?item=super-cool-binoculars), but if it isn’t, here’s how to get rid.
Open Google Analytics, switch to Admin
Create a new View in your chosen Property, or switch to the View you’d like to remove query strings from
In your new View, switch to Filters
Then press +NEW FILTER
Enter or choose the following:
- Create new Filter
- Filter Name: [Call it what you want]
- Filter Type: Custom > Advanced
- Field A -> Extract A: Request URI
([^\?]+)(\?.*)? - Field B -> Extract B: [Leave blank]
- Output To -> Constructor: Request URI
$A1 - Field A Required: [Tick]
- Field B Required: [No tick]
- Override Output Field: [Tick]
- Case Sensitive: [No tick]
Now, before we go on I’ll explain the most important bit. It’s this regular expression in Field A -> Extract A’s Request URI:
([^?]+)(?.*)?
That’s a very complicated way of saying:
- Capture everything before the ? as group 1
- Capture everything after and including the ? as group 2
Giving Google Analytics $A1 tells it that we want to insert group 1 from field A into the new Request URI - omitting group two :-)
That’s it!
Save your filter then switch to Real-Time > Overview in Reporting to see it in action. You should get a much clearer picture of your most popular pages.
Hope it helps, let me know in the comments if you get stuck.