Set up unwanted referrals in Google Analytics

Managing Referrals in Google Analytics is a crucial step to keep your data clean and informative. In this tutorial, you will learn how to identify and exclude unwanted referrals. For instance, if you do not want traffic from specific domains to be shown as referrals, I will show you how to remove these domains from your Google Analytics 4 account.

Key Takeaways

• Referrals from undesired domains can impact the quality of your analytical data.
• Creating a list of unwanted referrals helps you display only relevant data in your reports.
• The process is simple and only requires a few steps within Google Analytics.

Step-by-Step Guide

To set up unwanted referrals, follow these simple steps:

Accessing the right settings

First, you need to log into your Google Analytics 4 account. Ensure you are in the correct Property from which you want to configure the unwanted referrals. Now, navigate to the 'Data Streams' settings. Click on 'Data Streams' and select the relevant stream for which you want to adjust the settings.

Accessing the unwanted referrals list

Once you are in the correct data stream, scroll down a bit. Look for the option for 'Tagging Settings.' Here, you will find the feature to manage unwanted referrals. Click on it to open the list of unwanted referrals.

Adding unwanted domains

In this section, you have the option to add domains whose traffic should no longer be considered as referrals. To add a new domain, enter the domain. You can either enter the exact domain or use regular expressions to set specific conditions, such as all subdomains.

Example of a domain

For example, if you want to exclude the referral from xyz.com, simply enter xyz.com in the corresponding text field. You also have the option to enter other domains like zuhause.at or similar. This gives you the flexibility to tailor the referrals to your specific requirements.

Saving settings

After adding all unwanted referrals, remember to save the changes. Click on the 'Save' or 'Apply' button to ensure your settings take effect.

Completing the configuration

With these few steps, you have now successfully set up the category of unwanted referrals. Your data analyses will now be less disturbed by irrelevant traffic. In the next video, we will take a closer look at session timeouts.

Summary

By specifically excluding unwanted referrals, you significantly optimize your analytical data. The setup is straightforward, and once done, your view remains clean and unaffected by irrelevant traffic.