I've seen some strange approaches to tracking mobile visits using Google Analytics, which is quite surprising - especially considering that this is something that Analytics does out of the box. Granted, the Standard Reporting -> Audience -> Mobile page does not show much, apart from mobile operating system and resolution, but there's a very nice tool that allows any report to be filtered by a custom parameter.
I'm not talking about Profiles, which, although powerful, are only applied as data is gathered, and cannot be selectively enabled and disabled for existing statistics. Advanced segments are a very mighty, yet not well known tool. They can filter any existing report (e.g. Content, to see what pages should be the first to get a mobile-friendly layout). Most importantly - they can be mixed and matched, to show multiple facets of your site's traffic at once:
![Visitors by browser Visitors by browser](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A46Ew3IMB77ru5a3FkH08bIpolT_xFtWj1cz7jQGgyHuUK14Ttxebh-jlOCE4qFGaxgbqZysRgBdVM7FhEBgL9cONyVekDN1BFHtghyphenhyphenz8RBpb1LvYeMAgHpUrvUFX6sTwbz_tvv2N1g/s800/advanced_segments_visits_by_browser.png)
As today Google enabled custom reports and advanced segments sharing, you can just click my link to add Advanced segment - Mobile to your Google Analytics dashboard. If you would rather define it manually (and you should - as you'll probably want to define other advanced segments for your site), then proceed as follows:
- Go to Standard Reporting -> Advanced Segments and click New Custom Segment
- In the new form, set Name to Mobile, and parameters to Include, Mobile, Exactly matching, Yes
- Press Save Segment and you're done.
![Defining Advanced Segment for Mobile Defining Advanced Segment for Mobile](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrKbMCnalH-Ny5RCsHZEc36Ok8oOS10Q5u8YbgRNtlLVDwFLfT1RK04GU7vnZRtTB7f3L-4NYzSy3a_LbUU961auV5TqAYx6Okp3cUUQCUQXPp3QOdhRqxi3Eujfzqi6nmDKduJ7wNp4/s800/advanced_segments.png)
To choose which segments are used for displaying the data, press Advanced Segments again, select and press Apply. All Visitors brings you back to an unfiltered view.
![Choosing active segments Choosing active segments](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwswMpwvre0lceb90dlt24ChyphenhyphenP3YtoAJ2uNrPFPuBAKJJrJ1s63luUfMZ6l0IyCCe4LDeAVy2VorgxlNeBDkLuNB2xdzBzkO01r3mCm8dD_89B8wgcy-Dk0rx4n-PjBk5oXmQ8OR70IA8/s800/advanced_segments_disable.png)
And finally, a screenshot of the Mobile segment in action:
![Mobile visitors vs. total traffic Mobile visitors vs. total traffic](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZcNuM_8r6fP3S3-MXsE2ZjsyAkUbrdnbJfu1k4PGOAYnw8luoGcNf_SCz5xj2TgBBgZIiY1MtXNMFUWkc5PiRPYn3ZyoC77_sEl9XMhvXbkZdMEAieiKK_XEBO_X1Qc5xMDL_oD1D6gw/s800/advanced_segments_mobile_vs_total.png)