Pages Not Used

The scenario:

As an owner of a web site, I want to know which web pages are not getting used to be able to remove those pages.

Requires:

Google Analytics 4 installed

Steps:

1. Log into Google Analytics 
2. Go to Explore, choose Free Form 
3. Title your exploration name
4. Choose a date range. Because this is to check on pages not used, you probably want to make this a quarterly range. Note that you may have a range limit on your query. Google Analytics will warn you if this is the case.
5. Add the following dimensions: Path path and screen class, Page Title 
6. Add the following metrics: Total Users, Views 
7. Tab Settings: 
   • Technique: Free form 
   • Visualization: Table 
   • Segment Comparisons: none 
   • Rows: Page path and screen class, Page title  
   • Columns: None
   • Values: Total Users, Views 
   • Filters: Views < 5

Considerations:

This will not tell you if a page has not been accessed at all. To get a list of pages that have not been accessed, you need to run a full report (remove the Views < 5 filter) and compare it against your site map. This will require IT assistance.

Keep in mind your audience. If a page has been accessed once, it might have been very important for that person. Unpopular pages don’t necessarily mean they should be deleted, just that it should factor in your general maintenance.

Some pages will change their behavior depending if there is a querystring attached to this and the type of querystring (identified by the question mark; for example, https://mysite.illinois.edu/people?name=wu and https://mysite.illinois.edu/people?name=johnson). This report combines all pages into one bucket, regardless of querystring.

Further data exploration:

Remember that when you change an existing report, you are changing it forever. Make a copy or use a new report if you want to explore.