Question

When I first start one of my WordPress blogs, I had the permanent URL for each post include the date of posting.

The slug format looked like this:
/blog/2010/01/25/this-is-my-article/

Later on, I changed it so that the date was not included in the permanent URL, like this:
/blog/this-is-my-article/ and setup a redirect plugin to make sure that users would get to the page they wanted until the site was re-indexed.

In Google Analytics, when I review the stats for content I now have multiple records for what is essentially the same page. ie:

Top Content List:

1. 45 Pageviews- /blog/this-is-my-article/
2. 24 Pageviews- /blog/2010/01/25/this-is-my-article/
3. 33 Pageviews- /blog/some-other-article/

Is there any way to combine those records somehow?

Answer 1

I think the most straightforward way to do this is by using Filters, “Advanced Filters” in particular. In your case, you’ll use one Filter for each blog-article pair (one URL w/ title + date, the other URL w/ title only)–this way, you’ll merge the two URLs into a single line item in your reports.

(I’m assuming you haven’t done this before, so,

1. from the “Settings” Page in GA,
   click on “Filter Manager” (probably
   bottom right)

2. Click “Add Filter”

3. Enter a name for this Filter
   (article name is probably a good
   choice)

4. Click the radio-button below that
   textbox, “Custom Filter”

5. Then Click the last of a set of six
   radio buttons below that, “Advanced”

6. for “Field -> A -> Extract A” select
   “Request URI” from the dropdown menu

7. Beside that menu is a textbox, type
   in the article title
   (this-is-my-article)–no parens, no
   quotes

8. The next line (“Field B -> ….”)
   leave blank

9. The line after that, which begins
   with “Output To->” select “Request
   URI” from the dropdown

10. Type in the article title (with “/”
    at the beginning, no space; and
    “.html” at the end, no space)

11. Click “Yes” for “Field A Required”

12. Click “No” for “Field B Required”

13. Click “Yes” for Override Output
    Field

14. Click “No” for “Case Sensitive”

15. Below that, you’ll select which of
    your Website Profiles you want to
    apply this Filter to

16. Click “save changes” and you’re
    done (obviously you’ll need to
    repeat this process for each URL
    pair).