Profiles and Profile Settings

The data for each web site that you track is stored in a profile. Most documentation describes a profile as data for a web site. But a profile is more than just data. Each profile has a number of settings that can affect the data within the profile.

A more accurate way to describe a profile is a collection of data and business rules. The business rules modify the data in the profile. In Google Analytics, the business rules are called filters (I'll discuss them more in a later section), and each profile can have different filters.

Multiple profiles can be created for the same web site. Each profile can have different filters, thus changing the data in each additional profile created for a web site. So, even though you may have two profiles for http://www.epikone.com, the data in the reports could be dramatically different because of the different filters applied to each profile.

Why would you create multiple profiles for a single web site? To create different sets of data for different types of analysis. I'll discuss this more in the "Filters" and "Tips and Tricks" sections, where I suggest some profiles that you should consider creating.

In addition to filters, there are other settings that are common to each profile. Understanding how each setting alters the data in the profile is important when you're setting things up.

Website URL

The Website URL is used for two simple tasks. First, it is used to check the installation of the tracking code. After a profile ...

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