If you’ve ever used Google Analytics, you know that it’s a powerful tool for understanding your website traffic. In this article, we’ll answer the question, “what is a secondary dimension in Google Analytics and how to add them?”.
What Are Dimensions in Google Analytics Good For?
Before answering “what is a secondary dimension in Google Analytics”, let’s first explain the concept of dimensions in general. Dimensions are features of your data that can be used to segment and filter your reports. For example, the “Source” dimension tells you where your traffic is coming from (e.g., organic search, direct, referral, etc.), while the “Country” dimension tells you which countries your visitors are from. You can use dimensions to better understand who your visitors are and where they’re coming from.
What Is a Secondary Dimension in Google Analytics?
A secondary dimension is an additional dimension that you can add to your data tables. This allows you to see two dimensions of data at the same time. For example, you might want to see how traffic from different sources varies by country.
To do this, you would add the “Source” dimension as your primary dimension and the “Country” dimension as your secondary dimension. Then, you would see a table with columns for each source and rows for each country. This would give you a better idea of which countries are most important for each source of traffic.
What Are Secondary Dimension Features?
Learning the answer to “what is a secondary dimension in Google Analytics” requires learning what makes them different from primary dimensions:
- You can’t use secondary dimensions to segment your reports (e.g., by date range or device).
- Some reports don’t support secondary dimensions (e.g., the Top Events report).
- You can only use certain data as a metric or primary dimension (e.g., you can’t use pageviews or unique visitors as a secondary dimension).
- The default settings for secondary dimensions are different from those for primary dimensions (e.g., the default sort order is alphabetical rather than by number of visits).
- You can remove a secondary dimension from a report at any time by clicking the “x” next to the dimension name.
How to Add a Second Dimension to Your Data Tables
Now that you know what is a secondary dimension in Google Analytics, let’s go over how to add one to your data tables. First, choose the report you want to add the secondary dimension to and click on the primary dimension listed at the top of the report (e.g., “Source” in the Acquisition reports or “Landing Page” in the Behavior reports). This will open a menu of all the available dimensions you can add as a secondary dimension. Select the one you want, and it will be added to your report.
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- What Is a Dimension in Google Analytics? Custom Dimensions & Metrics
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