Skip to main content Skip to local navigation
Home » Reports & Metrics » Secondary Dimensions

Secondary Dimensions

According to Google documentation “Dimensions describe characteristics of your users, their sessions and actions.” A Primary Dimension is the default Dimension that defines your report; a Secondary Dimension is an additional characteristic that you’ve added to the report to provide extra information about your visitors.

In other words, when you drill down to a report by clicking through Google Analytics’ left navigation, the report generated is based on a Primary Dimension. You can add a Secondary Dimension to add another layer of information to your data. This allows you to find out more about the data you are considering.

For example, you can add a Secondary Dimension like ‘Source’ to the All Pages report (Behavior > Site Content > All Pages) to find out what the Source of your visitors is to each URL listed in the Page column.

How to Apply a Secondary Dimension to a Report

  1. Go to the report that best matches the data you are interested in learning about (eg. ‘All Pages’, as above)
  2. Click on the ‘Secondary Dimension’ button that appears between the graph and the grid — a drop down menu will appear
    GA-SecDimension
  3. Select the Dimension that best matches the additional information you are interested in learning about
    GA-SecDimensionDD
    Note: only the Dimensions that can be applied to your report will appear in the list — those that do not apply will remain inaccessible.
    Also note: you can start typing in order to narrow down or search through options (ie. by typing ‘Page’ only options including ‘Page’ in the name will appear.)
  4. Your report will automatically regenerate with the additional information listed.