Sep 09
2008
2008
Tracking Mobile Devices in Google Analytics
web analytics By: Allaedin Ezzedin 22 Comments »
| Today, people are more mobile and so is the Internet. People pay bills, read news, do shopping, and more using their mobile devices.
Website owners should be aware of this fact and design their sites to be mobile-device friendly. |
 |
The first questions a web analyst will be asked by website owners are: how many people visit my site using mobile devices, what is special about this segment of users, and what can I do to optimize my site for mobile device marketing?
Thanks to Google Analytics, answering these questions is as easy as 1, 2, and 3!
- Create a data filter to include only traffic from mobile devices.
- Create a profile and include the filter created in the first step.
- View data.
1. Create a new data filter to capture only traffic from mobile devices
- Go to: Analytics Settings -> Filter Manager -> + Add Filter
- In the “Filter Pattern” box, add the list of mobile devices you would like to include in your report separated by the pipe character | (Vertical Bar).
Note: Google Analytics can only track web browsers that execute JavaScript.
2. Create a profile (Ex. Mobile Devices)
- Go to: Analytics Settings -> Add Website Profile.
- Check the “Add a Profile for an existing domain” radio button.
- Apply the filter created in step 1 – Mobile Devices Users – into this new profile
3. View data
Select the Mobile Devices profile. All of the data in this profile is now just for mobile devices’ visitors.
This is a great post. I’m looking for a master list of devices to put in the filter pattern. I can’t find anything on GA’s help section. Where did you discover that list?
Thanks!
This list was compiled from looking at the Operating System report for several different websites.
Maybe someone else who reads your comment might know of a website that has a list of the most common mobile/non-computer operating systems.
http://www.noeman.org/gsm/pocket-pc-smartphone-zone/37054-list-mobile-phone-operating-system.html
this is link where you’ll get all the mobile OS in the world
Lol – hmmm hate to say this but how exactly is this going to work for the 90% of handsets that dont work with Google Analytics……?
There are 9 specialist mobile analytics vendors out here.
You can only track mobile browsers accurately by using one of these specialist vendors.
Cheers,
Dean Collins
http://www.Amethon.com
Thank you for your comments, Dean.
At this point Google Analytics is not specialized at mobile tracking.
And obviously it only works on mobile devices that support JavaScript.
For very detailed and precise mobile tracking, you would need to go with a specific solution.
However, the number of devices that support JavaScript is growing.
And you might only be interested in seeing how owners of popular devices like the iPhone are interacting with your website.
And for that, Google Analytics gives you what you need to know.
We know Google Analytics is only going to get better and more powerful.
We hope one day it will include better mobile tracking.
I am looking at WURFL, that should give a comprehensive list of mobile OS’es I believe. Will try to parse out the OS list alone..
WURFL gave me just the following.
Android
Hiptop OS
iPhone OS
Linux Smartphone OS
Palm OS
RIM OS
Symbian OS
webOS
Windows Mobile OS
I still doubt this is everything…
Another method to track mobile device traffic is by using advanced segment feature in Google Analytics.
You can actually copy the segment I have created from the following URL, and test it.
http://www.seolion.com/mobile-device-specific-reports-in-google-analytics-using-advanced-segments/
Thanks for the list, SEO Lion.
We’ll try out the segment and see how it works.
There is now even more mobile devices supported in Google Analytics with Mobile Tracking see expanded mobile reporting here:
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-analytics-now-more-powerful.html
Although it involves server side tracking. Just thought I’d mention it for people looking at mobile tracking.
Thanks for the reminder, Gavin.
We are slowly working on preparing a new post regarding the new mobilie tracking features, and then will update this article to point people to the new post.
most mobile browsers out there can’t do javascript
Google Analytics needs javascript.
If you want to see all mobile devices you will need to look at your server logs.
Hi Michael,
The percentage of phones that can do javascript is growing quickly.
Maybe someone who has a dinky old phone that can barely handle WAP won’t be visiting your website or doing anything useful.
Not tracking them might not be a huge loss.
The guys on their blackberry, iphones, and others, they interact with websites and tracking them is definitely useful.
There are non javascript methods of tracking mobile visitors too.
Mobile tracking is a very dynamic field and one year from now we might be wondering how we ever lived without mobile tracking!
actually Javascript is not the restriction anymore.
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-analytics-now-more-powerful.html
Expanded Mobile reporting via server side code like PHP is now supported.
This list was compiled from looking at the Operating System report for several different websites.
Maybe someone else who reads your comment might know of a website that has a list of the most common mobile/non-computer operating systems.
What about ASUS with Interenet Mobile Explorer. It has JS but I did not succeeded to track visits to our pages
Check out the new Google analytics, it has support for much more mobile devices and improved reporting. It’s pretty switch. You can also track social signals better now.
You are absolutely right! The new mobile report in GA is fantastic and offers what my little hack suggested. I wrote this post back in 2008 which is way before GA announced the new feature
Should we create different google analytics code for mobile site and normal site
Hi Ancy,
It really depends on:
1) how you are reporting data from the different digital properties
2) the interaction between the mobile site and the main site
If the mobile site is 100% independent of the main site, then maybe reporting each web property in a separate profile or event account is a good idea. But, if the mobile site depends on the main site for conversion and other main functions, then linking the two sites and reporting them to the same profile is a must.
Can google analytics support smartphones or it tracks every phones?
Hey all, no need to do this filter thing now, new interface of google analytics has they power to do it. Just open it and in search window type mobile and you will see 2 options, select mobile devices and done
Thanks
Dhanesh Mane