Learn About Your Mobile Users With Google Analytics’ Mobile Traffic Default Segment

Note: This post is using the old version for Google Analytics for the example. I haven't gotten used to the new version yet… and, frankly, really dislike the new UI. The new version only has iPhone traffic as a default segment anyway.

As universities and colleges make decisions on how they're going to pursue their mobile strategy it's important to know not only how many users are using your site (that handy "Mobile" option under "Visitors") but what content they're actually attempting to use. Luckily, Google Analytics provides a nice built-in feature to learn about their habits.

To access it simply go to the profile for the website you want to review mobile use for. Then in the top right you should see "Advanced Segments". It'll look like this:

Click on "All Visits" and you should be given the option to add default or advanced segments. Scroll down the list of default segments. Check the "Mobile Traffic" option and click "Apply". It should look like this:

The mobile traffic segment checkbox under the 'Advanced Segments' feature of Google Analytics.

Once that segment is applied your views should now include stats regarding content use by users on mobile devices. The following screenshot is from my personal blog and shows all traffic versus mobile traffic.

Screenshot showing the mobile traffic versus all traffic for my blog.

So if you're a data junky like me hopefully this helps as you make decisions for your institution (or, heck, your department or whatever) on what you should pursue.

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